


Ideas Tumblring Out

by kiarcheo



Category: Amar a Muerte (TV)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, F/F, Gen, Ideas Collection, Juliantina, Tumblr Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-02-18 16:20:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21780319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiarcheo/pseuds/kiarcheo
Summary: A place for ideas that are not fully fledged fics but are developed enough that I want to share them instead of waiting for a writing up that will never happen.Ch.1: 2 Papás 2 FuriousCh.2: Dance AUCh.3: Role reversal where Chino was a good dad and transmigrates in Leon’s bodyCh.4: Photographer!Juliana AUCh.5-6: Juliantina Appreciation Week Day 2 - AUCh.7: Youtube AU
Relationships: Juliana Valdes and Jacobo Reyes, Juliana Valdés & Macario "El Chino" Valdés, Valentina Carvajal/Juliana Valdés
Comments: 59
Kudos: 160





	1. 2 Papás 2 Furious

**Author's Note:**

> A month ago or so I reblogged a post of the scene with Beltran and Jacobo on the phone with Alacrán and wrote in the tags
> 
> # everytime I think about this scene # I imagine an AU where they need to team up # and # it's a comedy # and somehow # juliana finds herself from 0 dads to 2 # they constantly bicker # only thing they agree on is # being overprotective of juliana # who doesn't particularly appreaciate it # it's mostly # about # those two sniping at each other and trying to out-do the other # and poor # juliana having to deal with that
> 
> la luna (moontrimmer) wanted more so here it is more than 2000 words about the idea.

Chino is still a sicario but less of a crappy dad and he loves Juliana. She knows that he’s involved in shady business, although not the specifics, and that he’s trying to get out of that life (hence why he stole the money). He still gets arrested and executed and Leon transmigrates into his body. Faced with a ‘crazy’ man who claims he is not her husband but an entirely different person and chased by Alacrán and his men, it’s Lupita the one who bails, deciding this is not what she signed up for (which, really, do we want to talk about what she signed up for originally?? But anyway…)

Juliana recognizes pretty quickly that it might be Chino’s body but he’s not her dad. And if that is possible, why shouldn’t she believe Leon’s story? She decides to help him because 1) he still looks like her dad 2) if she can help someone to get their dad back, she will do it 3) she needs to focus on something else than being alone in the world now that her dad is dead and her mom left.

Leon might look like Chino, but he is not…which means that Juliana has less problems telling him when he’s being stupid. Like calling Lucia…because why would she believe that the husband who died in her arms is calling her…and with a different voice! Or going out during the hurricane…sure, there are less chances that Alacrán will get them, but also way more chances for them to die.

She also saves his ass more than once. Dragging him behind cars and walls, into rooms and shops, when she recognizes the faces of people working for Alacrán, when Leon would have just walked on and right into their path because he has no idea. Or acting like he’s actually her dad to raise less suspicions while they travel.

Leon doesn’t particularly appreciate getting manhandled and shushed and being told what to do…or being told off in that way. But he can’t deny that she is mostly right. And it’s not that hard to get into a fatherly role because he quickly gets attached to her. To this girl who despite the hand that life dealt her is still caring and selfless. Who is helping him without asking anything in exchange. Who is younger than his youngest child and yet already went through so much. He vows to himself that he will do anything he can to protect her and take care of her.

Meanwhile Chino wakes up in Beltran’s body. As soon as he realises what happened, or well, he realises that he is in another body and the news are saying that Chino Valdes came back to life after the execution, he knows he needs to find his family before Alacrán does.

And he does. Or better, he finds Juliana with…himself? And his first reaction is to beat up Leon until Juliana manages to stop him by yelling at him that no, she knows that he’s not her dad, he’s not taking advantage of her. Things between the two men don’t really get much better after such a first meeting. They don’t want anything to do with each other. And don’t want Juliana to have anything to do with the other. Leon arguing that she should stay with him because he has a place (with Camilo, Chino bites back), he is not a criminal (but has the body of one), he is legally her father (he has the fake identity of Jacobo Reyes) and has been acting as such. Also he wouldn’t put her in danger like Chino did (like he didn’t drag her through an hurricane?).

Of course Chino doesn’t take it lying down, his main argument being that HE IS Juliana’s dad and she should be with him.

They keep going on and on until Juliana points out that 1 ) she is 18 and she can decide for herself and 2) their lives are intertwined, at least for now. Because Alacrán is after Chino…and doesn’t know and probably wouldn’t care anyway, that is it Leon in his body. Because to recover the money Chino stole he might need to talk to people…who won’t talk to ‘Beltran’. And, she mentions off-handedly, Alacrán knows that the best way to get to Chino is through her, so whoever she is, she is in danger anyway.

That shuts them up immediately. The only thing they can agree on is that Juliana needs to be protected. They reluctantly agree to team up until Chino gets the money back and/or Alacrán is dealt with. In exchange Leon will get help to figure out who killed him and why.

The time that follows is full of adventures and misadventures. A mix between a road trip, a treasure hunt and playing detectives (much to Chino’s distaste for any kind of police’s comparison), with the two men constantly bickering and Juliana being stuck in the middle.

Like when they asked info to the wrong person while trying to chase down a lead and ended up being chased themselves.

And still they would not stop.

‘If Juliana gets hurt, I will kill you,’

‘Please, if it wasn’t for you, this wouldn’t have happened,’

‘If it wasn’t for me, you’d be dead,’

‘It’s your fault that she is in danger in the first place,’

‘When this is over she is gonna stay with me and I’ll keep her safe’

‘Oh yeah? With your other family?’

‘So you admit that she is my family too?’

‘How nice, are you gonna be a stay-at-home dad, then?’

‘So you admit that I’m her father?’

Juliana snaps her fingers. She would clap her hands but she doesn’t want to attract unwanted attention ‘Can you please focus on the people trying to kill us and squabble about who get the custody when we are safe?’

The truth is that Juliana doesn’t think they would last without her. And not just because they might end up killing each other, but because they are both too brash, albeit in a different way. Leon because he’s used to have money and power, ordering something and being obeyed, things going his way without much hassle. And Chino because he’s used to it being his way or the grave. His go-to-mood is threatening violence and then acting on it to obtain what he wants. They are both so used to get their own way that their plans usually consisting of going in guns blazing (literally for Chino) and demands in a more or less polite way (*cough* Chino *cough*) what they want or need.

Understandably she needs to take a breath every now and then (quite often, let’s be honest, they are annoying, and when they gang up against her out of some good intentioned but stupid overprotectiveness it’s even worse). So she goes to the park. And that’s where she meets Valentina.

They hit it off immediately and become fast friends…with Juliana having no idea who Valentina actually is. Until Leon and Chino find them at the park together. Suspicious about Juliana’s increasing absences, and fearing she is getting into troubles to help them, they follow her.

Valentina lets Juliana approach the two men, but she can still hear some of what they say. ‘What are you doing with her?’ ‘Do you know who she is?’ ‘Valentina Carvajal…ring a bell?’

Then she decides to intervene. Asking Juliana if they are harassing her. ‘No,’ Juliana hurries to say, before Valentina can suggest to call the police ‘they are…he is…my-’

‘Father’ both of them reply and then glare at each other.

‘And they are leaving,’ Juliana goes on. ‘Right now,’

They try to protest but Juliana stands her ground, glowering at them.

‘Your daughter is so stubborn!’ Leon grumbles as they leave.

‘Why is she my daughter when you don’t like something and your daughter when you like it?’

As they sit back on the bench, Juliana apologises. Talk a bit about how weird it is to suddenly gain two fathers, that she is still adjusting, because she knows he’s the same person but seeing a different body sometimes is still jarring.

It’s only after some comments that she realises that Valentina thinks that her mom transitioned and now he is a man and that’s where the whole same person/different body thing come from (and also the clear tension between her parents). Juliana almost wishes that was the explanation because it would certainly be simpler. But she decides to tell Valentina the truth. She probably already thinks she is a weirdo with crazy parents and she hasn’t asked anything about their reaction to the fact that she is Valentina Carvajal, so she might even think she is trying to get something from her…if she thinks that she is crazy too, well, so be it.

So she tells her how she knows it sound impossible and crazy, but the person inside her dad’s body is not actually her dad, but her dad is in another person’s body. Valentina is thrown for a second, before starting to tell her about Camilo’s book and how it helped her to deal with her dad’s death. Juliana is trying to decide what to tell her when Eva calls because Valentina is late for the funeral of the journalist, so their talk is interrupted.

Juliana returns home and of course the first thing Leon asks is if she told Valentina. She tells him no but that she seemed open to the idea thanks to Camilo’s book. Then she catches him up with what’s going on with his family as much as she can without betraying Valentina’s confidence and trust.

When they tell the truth to the family, it goes like in the show, with Leon bringing up memories only he would know. And that don’t really paint him in the best light.

‘Not such a perfect daddy anymore, eh,’ Chino gloats.

‘Shut up, at least I’m not a criminal who ended up on the electric chair’

‘I might be a criminal but at least I never stopped my daughter from following her dreams,’ he sneers. ‘Also you died like a dog, too, so, didn’t make any difference, did it?’

‘Well, at least I didn’t put my daughter in danger with my dealings with narcos,’

‘And yet she was sequestered. Along with your wife. Who also got kidnapped. By narcos.’

‘That was not my fault,’

‘Are you saying it was their fault?’

‘I did not say that,’

The family is perturbed. The two men are in each other’s face. Did that man just admit he is a criminal? And they have never seen their dad like that.

Juliana is just sitting there rolling her eyes. ‘Can we please focus on the important matters?’

Eva is like ‘What are you even doing here?’, like she was with Johnny at breakfast in the show, not very nicely.

‘Don’t talk to her like that!’ Valentina, Leon, and Chino look at each other, having said that at the same time.

‘Okay,’ Eva raises an eyebrow, taken aback by the vehemence in both her dad and sister’s voices. ‘Can I at least ask who is she?’

‘Dad, please, it’s okay,’ Juliana interrupts preventively. ‘She is right,’

‘Well, she might be right but she should be nice,’ Leon reproaches and everyone who knows Eva has to suppress laughter because Eva and being nice are quite distant concepts, while Chino of course goes ‘She is not your daughter’

As they talk and plan, Eva’s dealings with Alacrán are revealed. The other Carvajal are appalled. Chino seems to revaluate her.

‘I get laundering money if he was blackmailing or threating, but sleeping with him?’ Juliana makes a disgusted face. Then she mutters, almost to herself. ‘As I told him, I’d rather die than sleep with him,’

‘You did what?’ ‘When did you see him?’ ‘When did this happened?’ ‘What did he do?’ ‘Where was I??’ Leon and Chino’s questions all over each other.

‘You were in jail,’ she calmly tells Chino. ‘And you were here in Mexico getting married…well, your body was in jail, I mean, you get what I mean,’

‘I’ll get him arrested,’ ‘I’ll get him killed,’

—–

When they find out that Valentina and Juliana are dating…Juliana can’t tell if they are genuinely okay with it from the start or if it’s just that they don’t want the other to appear as the ‘more accepting one’. What matter is that they make a point to make it clear that they are aggressively fine with that.

Leon even starts trying to give a shovel talk…which ends up being an awkward, trying-to-sound-stern ‘Don’t hurt Valentina,’ to Juliana, before turning and giving a ‘Don’t hurt Juliana’ warning to Valentina. Listen, Leon loves both of them like daughters, okay?

‘Pathetic,’ Chino strolls up. ‘You hurt my daughter and I’m going to kill you, and I was a sicario so I will actually do it,’

‘Dad!’ Juliana hugs a slightly queasy looking Valentina.

‘What??’ both Leon and Chino reply.

‘And that’s how you give a proper shovel talk!’ Chino gloats at Leon. ‘Also, she is not your daughter.’

The usual discussion starts again until Juliana interrupts them. Because being Leon’s daughter would make things awkward, she mentions, while holding Valentina’s hand.

‘Daughter-in-law,’

‘She is barely eighteen, my baby is not getting married any time soon! And certainly not to someone she just met,’

‘Don’t talk like that about my daughter,’ Leon instinctively defends Valentina

‘So you do admit that Juliana is not your daughter?’

Juliana exhales a long-suffering sigh.

‘Are they always like that?’ Guille asks, wide-eyed, still not used to see this side of his father.

‘Yep’

‘Yeah,’ Valentina agrees with Juliana. ‘First time I saw them I thought they were bickering like a married couple,’

‘You should tell them that,’ Juliana snickers.

‘I already got a death threat today, thank you very much,’ Valentina replies, only half joking.

——

They deal with Alacrán, laying a trap using Juliana as a bait. Or better, Juliana using herself as a bait because Chino, Leon, and Valentina are all vehemently against it. So she sets it up with Eva. Who wants to make amends and help bringing Alacrán to justice and knows that Juliana’s plan is the one with the highest probability of success. Indeed as soon as they learn that Alacrán got Juliana and wants to ‘talk’ to Chino, they organize an exchange like in the show. Leonchino shows up, Belchino shoots Alacrán (he did say he would kill him, not his fault they didn’t think he was serious…he was a sicario for Christ’s sake, and that lowlife had threatened and then kidnapped his daughter!), the police arrests everyone else.

They also deal with Johnny. Leon knows the truth and forgives Lucia like in the show. When Johnny shows up at the house, Chino is thankfully there. And he recognizes a criminal when he sees one. So he follows him and shoots him as soon as he starts waving his gun. Then they cover it up as a suicide because there is no reason Beltran Camacho, an anthropology professor, should be in the Carvajal house with a gun, knowing how to use it. And having ‘Jacobo Reyes’, who looks like the by-now infamous resurrected sicario Macario Valdes killing someone is even less of a good idea.

Leon gets a job as Eva’s right-hand…he can’t really take his position back as Jacobo, but he takes over a lot of his previous duties and lighten up Eva’s workload, who can finally dedicate some time to her own passions. And after a while he finally gets his wish of being officially and legally Juliana’s family…

(credit to [slytherise](https://slytherise.tumblr.com/post/188531149885/wedding-vibes))


	2. Dance AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my least favourite among the things I've been working on...love the idea, wouldn't leave me alone for ages, but don't really like how it came out...but, oh well, here it is. Happy New Year!

Valentina has been doing ballet since she can remember, even if now it has taken a backseat to other obligations: university, Lucho, her family. Juliana has learned to dance from anywhere and anyone, her style an eclectic mix of Latin dances and street dance. The only ‘lessons’ she ever got the ones from a young teacher who organized an afterschool group in an effort to keep kids of the trailer park away from gangs, drugs and violence.

Having moved to Mexico Juliana is doing something similar for the kids of her quartier, more fortunate than where she grew in San Antonio but not much richer. It's not a lot, just meeting up, putting on some music and dancing together. It varies every time. Sometimes she’d teach them something, sometimes it would be someone else showing some moves they have seen, sometimes learning a choreography, others just dancing for the sake of it. It’s not a lot, but Juliana is proud of what they built. It started with just a handful, but now the group is bigger, going from children to teenagers.

Valentina stumbles upon them one day in a park (they don’t have their own space, so they just use public ones). She was out with Lucho but they fought so she left and wandered off on her own, ending up in an area she usually doesn’t frequent. She sees them and stops to watch them enthralled by their energy and joy as they are having fun dancing. She keeps watching as a young woman, the older of the group, starts showing the rest some steps. Some kids notice her watching and invite her to join (wouldn’t be the first or last time it happens...and that’s actually how some got in the group, they saw them dancing, joined for an afternoon and then kept coming back...). She tries to refuse saying that she doesn’t know how to dance like that, but cheeky kid says that how is she ever going to learn then? and drags her to the group. And at first Valentina is self-conscious because she is the oldest (and only adult besides the teacher) and she hasn’t felt so awkward and out of place in ages, not knowing how to move her body _like that_ while everyone else seems to be doing it...certainly better than her. But then she realizes that nobody is looking at her or judging her, everyone doing their own thing . The other girl starts passing through them offering tips and help and when she arrives to her, she gestures in a silent ‘Can I?’

Valentina nods hesitantly and the girl proceeds to help her through the steps in a way that isn’t in any way different from how she did it with the others.

‘Thank you for joining,’

‘Thank you for letting me,’ Valentina found herself hanging back as everyone started to leave. ‘And the help...if you couldn’t tell, it’s not exactly my style,’

‘And what’s your style?’

‘Ballet...at least used to,’

Juliana looks at her up and down. ‘Yeah, can see that,’

Valentina fidgets a bit, before extending her hand. ‘Valentina,’

‘Juliana’

‘So, do you come here often?’

Juliana leans back, amused, eyebrow raised.

‘I mean, not like that,’ Valentina pouts slightly as Juliana laughs at her. ‘Do you do this often?’

‘When we can,’ Juliana decides to spare her. ‘Oh, shoot, I’m going to be late for work,’ she quickly grabs her stuff before running off. ‘Bye!’

And no, why do you ask, Valentina does not stalk the park the following days...of course not. She just wants to explore the city and discovers areas outside her usual ones....But when she does find them again, she makes sure to ask for Juliana’s number. So that she can text her when they are meeting up and where (it’s not always the same park. They mostly let them be, but they switch it up just in case), of course. And that’s it at the beginning. But then between a chat after they finish and another – Valentina might walk with Juliana to her job, but that’s on the way, no problem really – it is not, but Juliana doesn’t have to know that –, they get closer and they start texting for the sake of talking. Valentina falls for Juliana as much as she falls for the kids.

On a rainy day, when their meet-up is cancelled, but they still decide to see each other and going on a stroll Juliana points out a semi-abandoned building. Tells her how it sits unused and the owner would be even open to sell it, and how she sneaked in and could see the potential, could imagine how it could be...except that she doesn’t have that kind of money. Not to buy it, not to fix it. But guess who has that kind of money?

‘You know that I’m rich, right?’

Juliana nods. That’s impossible not to notice. Be the clothes, the driver, the easiness with which she buys ice-creams and drinks for the whole group without a second thought.

‘Like...really rich?’ it’s the first time Valentina has a conversation like that. Trying to convince someone that she is rich enough to afford something. Usually people just assume that she’ll be able and happy to pay whatever they ask and want. ‘As in...my father recently entered the list of the 20 richest men in the world rich,’

‘I’m sorry, what?’

‘So you can see how this,’ she gestures to the building. ‘Would not be a problem,’

‘You talk about buying a building as you’d talk about buying a dress,’ Juliana shakes her head in disbelief. ‘What are you even doing with us?’

‘Learning how to dance?’

'I can’t ask you to do that,’

‘First of all, you’re not asking, I’m offering. I’m doing it for myself too. This way we won’t have to cancel if it rains...and maybe we could fit some one-on-one lessons now that I’ve got some basics down,’

They discuss it over and over again until they reach a compromise: Valentina will be allowed to partially pay for it but they will look for funds elsewhere too. They decide to let on the kids on the discussion. The proposals vary: from a dance marathon to everyone putting some money in, to put on a show. Then someone suggests that they should audition for a talent show, kind of ‘Mexico got Talent’, trying to win the cash prize. Everyone gets very enthusiastic about it.

Valentina manages to convince Juliana that they need the space to train so she should let her buy the place without waiting to get money from other sources. They will do the bare necessary to make it usable and safe, and wait to do all the other works when they get other money.

Valentina also gets her one-on-one lessons. That’s what a group of parents walk in on. Because to participate to the auditions they need parental consent. And some meet up to talk with each other. Their children suggest that they should talk to Juliana to clear up any doubt they have...and so they go. The parents know Juliana, but it definitely surprises them seeing Valentina Carvajal there. Dancing with her. In a bare, empty room badly lit with some cheap lights. And the way their children interact with her. Shouting ‘uuh, get it,’ and generally teasing the two girls. And the girls accepting it good-naturally. And then when they get to discuss what they came for, Valentina generally stays out of it, but she clearly knows what’s going on. It’s a topic of discussion when they leave much more than the potential participation to a talent show. The general consensus, supported and pushed on by the children, is that they should mind their own business. Yes, clearly Juliana and Valentina are together. Yes, they know who Valentina is. But they don’t care about it, besides maybe when she gets everyone snacks and drinks. They love her. Juliana loves her. And she loves them. That’s all that matter. And they better not screw everything up for them.

And they don’t. Valentina is half pleasantly surprised and half thinks that some people she knows and act all superior could learn a thing or not...she has few doubts that had it been one of her ‘friends’, everyone would have known by the next day. Sergio, if only because he can’t keep his mouth shut when he drinks, and he drinks quite often. And Nayeli, well, she wouldn’t have wasted a minute to spread the news. Not that they are still her friends, since they took Lucho’s side after the break-up. Good riddance.

They pass the auditions and take part to the show. Between their peculiar style (especially with the addition of some classical nuances, courtesy of Valentina) and the general cuteness of kids and teenagers dancing (Juliana stays on the sideline coaching...Valentina makes sure to never be around when they are filming not to take attention away from them), they progress.

They don’t win. However their participation is still very productive. In the introductory video they say that they’d use the money of the prize to finish fixing the building, which was also shown in all its bareness while they filmed their rehearsals. One of the parents sets up a GoFundMe me account and they get donations from all over the country. The other good thing is that it becomes truly a community project. Many people, not just parents, offer their help, whether with money or with practical things, from fixing plumbing and electric issue to painting. Seeing everyone getting involved gives Juliana the idea that maybe it could be a space for everyone, not just for the kids to dance. They have meetings and decide to modify a bit the plans, making also a gym and some spaces to use for other classes or meetings or whatever they need so it can be something for the whole community.

In all of this Valentina is right by Juliana’s side...but how it’s possible that her family doesn’t know? Well, they clearly know something changed. That she is happier. And busier than ever. They also think they know the reasons. She broke up with Lucho. She started dancing again. She is more focused on her studies than ever, even if the direction seems to shift more towards business than journalism. And yes, they might suspect that there is someone new in her life, but they are not surprised she isn’t telling them. After all Lucia met Lucho at the wedding for the first time and they had been dating for years...and Lucia is pretty sure it was not because of her. Also everyone has a lot on their plate at the moment. Leon and Lucia recently got married. Eva is having marital problems. Guille just started dating Renata and is trying not to mess that up. They are also dealing with Johnny’s attempted coup at the company. As the youngest and the only one not working at the company, Valentina is pretty much kept outside of it, and that makes it even easier for her to have a ‘secret’ life...if you can call it secret when dozens of people knows.

The first time her two lives collide is, guess it, at a park. The whole family is there because Leon was a major contributor to the requalification project and it’s the inauguration day. Valentina gets swarmed by a bunch of kids and gets dragged to dance. They question her because they didn’t know she could dance like that. And who were the kids? But she had told them that she was taking lessons...and they go to the same school. It’s enough to satisfy their curiosity.

Then one day Renata calls Guille over to show him something on her phone. ‘Isn’t this your sister?’ Guille looks at the video, but there are kids dancing...Renata goes back and stops on the imagine of Valentina, sitting on the ground, another girl sitting between her legs, back leaning against Valentina’s chest, as they watch the kids dance.

‘What is this?’

‘They were on Mexico Got Talent. They didn’t win, but were very good. Someone saw them dancing in the park and uploaded the video...I just thought I recognized your sister,’

Guille goes to Lucia. Because if Valentina had told anyone who isn’t him, it’s going to be her...certainly not Eva. Lucia is confused as he is.

‘Where are we going?’ Guille asks a couple of days later as the car passes through an area he’s not familiar with.

‘I looked into it. Those kids were on a talent show,’

‘Yeah, Renata said something like that,’

‘They didn’t win but still managed to fix their community centre anyway,’

‘And you think Val...’

‘She said that she is taking classes...and that the kids we met at the park went to the same school...I think she met them there,’

‘But why would she-’ he looks around, that’s not where he’d expect her to go for dance lessons.

‘That I don’t know, but she can tell us,’

They get in and can feel eyes on them. It’s clear that people recognize them, but nobody says anything, except for pointing them towards the dance classrooms.

They watch as Valentina dances with the girl she was with at the park. She is clearly the teacher, showing the rest of the class the steps, with Valentina’s help. It’s only at the end of the lesson that Valentina realizes they are there.

‘Sexy mama!’ Juliana smacks the boy upside the head. ‘What? She is hot!’

‘Be respectful! There are many other words you can use...beautiful, gorgeous, stunning,’

‘Hey,’ Valentina playfully slaps her arm. ‘That’s my step-mother,’

‘Also, word of advice, women much prefer being complimented on something other than their physical aspect,’

Once everyone leaves, Valentina asks them what they are doing there. Juliana tries to leave so that they can talk, but Valentina tells her to stay because if they are there, it probably involves her too. They confirm, because, as they explain, if Renata recognizes her, probably someone else will do too, sooner or later. And it won’t take much to find about who Juliana is and the school, since they were on TV. Juliana pretty much leaves it up to Valentina, both because she is the one who has more to loose and because she is the one who knows how to deal with this kind of stuff. They decide to keep going on as normal and deal with it as it comes.

Indeed it doesn’t pass long before Eva convokes a ‘family meeting’ (without Valentina) to talk about some rumours going around about Valentina.

‘You knew about this, didn’t you?’ she accuses Guille and Lucia after seeing their faces.

They confirm and convince her to see it for herself before acting rashly. So they took her and Leon to the centre.

Eva doesn’t know whether to be impressed or offended that when they arrive the only reaction they get is someone telling them which class is Valentina in. They watch as Valentina teaches a group of young kids ballet.

‘Who are you?’

Valentina reprimands gently the girl for the tone, before explaining that they are her family.

‘Are you taking her away?’

‘Ehi, I’m going nowhere, nobody is going to take me away,’ Valentina crouches down to reassure a couple of girls.

Still a girl very seriously points her finger at Eva, telling her that she won’t let them take their Vale away. Valentina really struggles to scold her because it’s almost too adorable...still, they don’t point fingers and threaten people.

Valentina takes them on a tour, showing them around.

‘This is our office...well, mostly mine, Juliana is not very good with numbers,’ she explains, and that’s how they find out why she was taking all those courses, because she is the one taking care of the administrative and financial side.

Then they arrive at another class where Juliana is dancing with a group of teenagers, because the last part of the class is always free dancing, so that they can get it all out before leaving.

The same guy of the last time starts to make an appreciative comment, but Juliana’s pointed cough stops him.

‘Is there anyone in your family who isn’t genetically blessed?’ another one takes over.

‘Better,’ Juliana nods.

‘You look very elegant, ladies,’ another one adds. ‘What?’ he asks as others laugh. ‘She said that women like when you compliment something other than their beauty,’

‘Oh that’s true!’ another joins. ‘I told Yasmin that I liked how she sneaked in late without the prof noticing and how cool she was when she punched David, and we’re going out tomorrow,’

‘Why did she punch him?’

‘He was making fun of Carlos, saying he’s gay because he likes ballet,’

‘I approve,’ Juliana raises her hand to high five him.

‘Give it up, she knows what she is talking about,’ a girl tells the first guy.

‘After all, Juliana se _salió_ con la _suya_ ,’ another says, nodding towards Valentina.

Valentina slings her arm around Juliana’s shoulders. ‘¿ _Y tú cómo sabes que no fui yo la que se salió con la suya_?’


	3. Role reversal where Chino was a good dad and  transmigrates in Leon’s body

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this idea when the show was still airing but nothing came out of it. Then ‘2 papás 2 furious’ gave me a renewed love for good dad!Chino and a push to write this…more than 7000 words later, here it is.

Lupe died when Juliana was still young and Juliana grew up with Chino. Who is still a sicario but also does his best to be a good dad to Juliana. It’s definitely harder to hide what he does from Juliana when he’s the only one taking care of her, so she knows that he is involved in some bad things but she loves him anyway, because he is her dad...and he loves her back.

As in the show Chino gets arrested and executed. He wakes up in an hospital and he gets progressively more and more enraged as they keep calling him with another name and refuse to call Juliana. Once he is cleared for visits, they tell him that his family will visit and he shocks them when he keeps screaming that he want to see his daughter and that if they hurt her, he will kill them all. Valentina and Eva both try, and then Lucia, and Guille, but he just growls that he doesn’t know what game they are playing, he’s not this Leon, and he doesn’t know them, and he will find his daughter no matter what. Needless to say that they sedate him.

Next time he wakes up he decides to play it smart and study the situation. He listens to his ‘family’ ask the doctor what’s wrong with him, why he doesn’t remember them, and if the coma might have influenced his personality, because he had never been so violent and he scared them. He realizes that something very weird is going on. Seeing himself in the mirror only confirms that. Because the one staring back at him is not Chino Valdes. He then asks his ‘family’ to tell him about himself and they are only happy to do so, hoping that it would jog his memory.

It doesn’t take him long to formulate a plan. After all he didn’t survive as a sicario for years by being stupid. He will play nice, lull them in a sense of false security and then, once they lower their guard and leave him alone without having their eyes on him all the time, he will go and find Juliana. Besides he might as well use some of his new body’s resources, since he is rich and powerful and probably has contacts that might help him to find her.

Because, again, he is not stupid. He knew that his job was dangerous and there were high chances of him not coming home one day. So he left Juliana instructions on what to do in that case. Clues and hints that people intercepting them would not be able to decipher, but that Juliana would be able to follow. Various steps and checkpoints so that even if someone managed to understand some, they would not be able to arrive at the end...where money and a new, safe, life awaited his daughter.

Juliana is indeed following the crumble trail left by her dad and left Texas for Mexico City. She finds a job at Perlita’s restaurant, where she also sleeps after Perlita finds out she doesn’t have a place to stay. Her meeting with Valentina is the same. She first sees her as she is walking, arguing with Lucho, who doesn’t understand why she is ‘like that’ when her dad survived and is alive and well. Except that it doesn’t feel like that because he doesn’t remember her and he claims (and seems) to be a completely different person.

Then Juliana sees her sitting on a bench drinking and approaches her. As they get close and open up to each other, Valentina shares with her how her dad was attacked on his wedding day, how he died on the operating table, and that they managed to get him back, but he doesn’t remember anything about his life or his family and is very much different. He says he’s not her dad and honestly she doesn’t recognize him either. His eyes are cold and never twinkle with humour and love as her dad’s did. He would sneer and growl, and glower at people from head to toe as if they were insect to be squashed. And even if he never went ballistic again like he did at the hospital, she’ll never forget that furious anger and she can still see it repressed in him. They are keeping all of this underwrap because the last thing they need is having to also deal with a crisis in the company. So they are just saying that he’s taking a step back from the Grupo to recover.

Humbled and touched by Valentina’s trust in her, Juliana tells her that she knows how it is to lose a father. Because hers died too. For real and definitively tho (lol). And how she is struggling because she knows he did bad things and he hurt a lot of people, but he was her dad, and all that she had in this world, and she loved him and he loved her and she misses him every day.

Juliana’s tale about the memory of a day out with her dad that she tells Valentina when she can’t sleep is true.

Because everyone is still living at the house, they usually meet at the park, at Perlita’s, around the city...and Valentina still needs some kind of escape, so she takes Juliana to the Valle house. Where she teaches her how to swim. And where they have their first kiss.

Lucho is still an asshole both to Valentina and Juliana, and after Valentina breaks up with him, he follows them to the house and sees them kissing. He goes to tell Eva who then has words with Valentina (except the ‘what would dad say’). However Eva has no way to know where Juliana lives and doesn't go to talk to her and Juliantina doesn’t break up. Also she has more pressing things to focus on: heading the company because her dad still doesn’t remember a thing, Lucia still being at the house, Johnny trying to get close to Leon (they decided not to tell anyone besides the immediate family, and for once Lucia agreed with her) and acting like he’s family and has a say in the company. So she just warns Valentina not to make a scandal and to come to her when she is done with her ‘phase’.

Things come to head. Despite Eva’s warning and her order that Juliana should not be let in the house, Valentina decides that it’s her house too (or mainly, since Eva was living somewhere else with Mateo before everything happened), she can bring her girlfriend whenever she wants. In reality she just needs to pick up some things before accompanying Juliana to work, but she doesn’t want to leave Juliana waiting in the car. She gets in a shouting match with Eva that attract all the people currently in the house in the foyer. Lucia and Guille try to mediate, but nobody expects Leon calling Juliana’s name and trying to hug her. She shoves him away and adopts a fighting stance ‘Who are you? What do you want? How do you know my name?’

‘Juli, it’s me, your dad,’

‘You don't think I’d recognize my dad? I saw him dying in front of my eyes and you’re certainly not him, so don’t you fucking dare,’

‘I swear it’s me! Chino!’

‘I thought you said your name was Macario,’

He doesn’t look at the Carvajal who said that (again, he is not stupid. Telling them he was not their father was one thing, telling them he was a sicario executed and returned to life was another), he keeps staring at Juliana, seeing the first sign of doubt in her stance. ‘Ask me something that only I would know, that only your dad would know. Anything!’ he pleads.

‘My 14th birthday,’

He draws a sharp breath. That was not a pleasant memory. ‘I had promised I would take you out for a meal to celebrate and you were excited because you had finished sewing your first piece and wanted to wear it. My job ran late. When I arrived you weren’t waiting for me sitting on the stairs as usual. You-,’ he swallows. ‘I shot those animals. You insisted you were fine. You were more upset about the dress being ruined than the bruises,’ he shakes his head. ‘I told you you would have still been the most beautiful girl, but you didn’t want to go out anymore. Instead I taught you how to shoot and gave you your first gun,’

‘Papá?’ Juliana croaks out, her voice breaking, before launching herself in his arms.

The others are half horrified at the tale, half confused at what’s happening...and taken back because that’s the closest to ‘Leon’ that ‘Macario’ has ever acted, being a father...and he’s like that with someone else, whispering comforting things, one hand rubbing Juliana’s back and the other caressing her head.

‘What are you doing here? And why do you look like this?’ Juliana asks, her hands touching his face.

‘No idea, but this body lives here. What are _you_ doing here?’

Juliana takes a step back. And then another. Until she is by Valentina’s side. ‘I suppose it will be easier now that I still don’t fully believe it’s you,’ she takes Valentina’s hand. ‘I’m here because my girlfriend lives here,’

Everyone waits with bated breath. 

‘Just to be clear...are you saying you are dating Valentina Carvajal?’

‘Yes,’ Juliana looks at him unflinchingly, almost challenging.

‘Great catch,’ he bursts out. ‘And great taste, just like your dad,’ he adds, drawing her into a side hug. ‘From what I saw, she seems like a good kid,’ he then turns to Valentina. ‘I might like you, but that doesn’t mean that if you hurt my daughter-’

‘So you’re okay with that?’ Juliana asks, not necessarily incredulous, but more like afraid that it’s all a dream.

‘Of course, why-oh, that’s why you said-Juli, you’re my daughter, there is nothing in the world that I wouldn’t accept. There is nothing in the world that would make me stop loving you. You could kill someone and I would still be the proudest dad,’

Juliana swats at him at his last remarks. ‘But really?’ she asks after a beat.

‘Really. Did someone give you trouble?’ he turns serious. ‘Who do I need to kill?’

‘No one!’ Juliana holds him still with a hand on his chest since he was already starting to move. ‘You’re not going to kill anyone. Especially not in this body. This is your second chance, nobody is after you. Nobody is even looking for you,’

Valentina hopes that Juliana will manage to convince him, and that he will stick by it even if he were to find out some stuff later on...because she loves her sister, pain in the ass that she is.

They all sit down, trying to make sense of what is happening.

‘So what you are saying is that you’re not my dad, Leon Carvajal, but Macario ‘Chino’ Valdes,’

‘That’s what I’ve been saying from the start,’

‘Juliana’s dad...which you said was dead,’ Valentina adds, turning to Juliana.

‘I saw him dying on the chair,’ Juliana nods.

‘You shouldn’t have been there,’ Chino chides her.

‘I wanted to be with you until the last moment. And there was no way I would have let you die alone,’

‘So stubborn,’

‘I wonder where I got it from,’ Juliana mutters back, before sharing a smile with her dad. They have both missed it.

‘But how that’s even possible?’ Lucia asks.

‘Transmigration,’ everyone looks at Guille. ‘It’s like in Camilo’s book,’

‘You read that?’ Eva asks.

‘Yeah, I thought papá didn’t believe that and only published it because it was Camilo,’ Valentina joins.

Guille explains how it had helped him when their mom died and what the book says. Once he finishes, Juliana stands up, apologizing, but she really needs to go if she wants to make it to work on time. Chino is not happy but lets her go with the promise that she’ll come back after her shift.

And she does even if it’s quite late.

‘Do you want something to eat?’

‘Oh no, thanks, I always eat at the restaurant, Perlita is great like that,’

Juliana tells her dad about her job until he interrupts her, realization dawning. ‘Wait, what about school?’

And she tells him that she obviously stopped going when she left San Antonio to follow his instructions. Chino asks at what point she arrived, and he’s proud of what she managed to achieve...but she doesn’t have to do that anymore. She doesn’t need to follow the cues and go on a treasure hunt because he knows where everything is already (he keeps it vague because he still doesn’t trust the others).

‘Dad,’

‘That’s not negotiable,’ for the first time the Carvajal hears him using a stern voice with Juliana. ‘You’re going back to school. How else am I supposed to become the best dressed man in the world?’

‘Well, actually,’

He raises an eyebrow and Juliana stops. She heaves a resigned sigh, because she knows she won’t win.

‘Wait, how old are you?’

‘Seventeen,’

‘Didn't know you liked them younger’ Guille teases his sister.

‘Must be a family trait,’ Eva mutters glaring at Lucia.

After a while Juliana announces that she is going because Perlita is letting her stay but she doesn’t want to take advantage of that.

‘You let her stay there?’ Guille and Lucia are surprised, and Eva too. Also slightly appalled that she’d live in the backroom of a restaurant.

‘Don’t you think I’ve tried that?’ Valentina huffs. Because of course she did. She offered everything she could think of, from having Juliana at her house, at the Valle house, at an hotel, getting her another, better, place. They even fought about it, and that’s how she found exactly how stubborn and proud her girlfriend is. And how nice it feels to be with someone who doesn’t care at all about her money.

‘We’re going to a hotel,’ Chino interrupts them. ‘For tonight, at least. Then we can look for something else?’

‘We?’

‘I just got my daughter back, of course I’m going to stay with her,’

‘Juls, why don’t you stay here?’ Valentina blurts out.

‘Que rapida me saliste!’ Juliana teases her.

‘Yeah, I’ve read about lesbian U-Haul but this must be a record,’

Juliana looks at her dad with amused appreciation...clearly that’s how he spent his time during her shift at work.

‘I think Val might have a point. If people find out that you’re staying somewhere with a girl young enough to be your daughter-’

‘She is my daughter,’

‘If people find out that Leon Carvajal is not staying at home with his wife,’ Guille starts again.

‘Who is also young enough to be his daughter,’

He glares at Eva.

‘But I agree. If nobody can know that you’re not Leon then you need to play the role,’ his older sister continues.

‘That makes sense,’ Juliana joins the conversation. ‘But I don’t want to impose,’

They reassure her that it’s the best solution for everyone, that there won’t be any problem and that there is plenty of space in the house.

‘Besides, I’m sure that Val will be happy to share her room with you,’ Guille can’t resist teasing. Val just shows him her tongue.

The cohabitation raises conflicting feelings. Of course Valentina loves living with Juliana. And loves seeing her girlfriend getting to know and getting along with Guille and Lucia, Mateo when he’s around, and, albeit slowly, even Eva. But it also means seeing every day her dad not being her dad, but rather Juliana’s. And it hurts. Every time they share an inside-joke and she is left on the outside, not getting it. When she walks in to pick up Juliana for one of their dates, and she finds Chino braiding her hairs and joking about the terrible job he did the first times he tried that. It hurts. But at the same time she can’t fault Juliana for any of that. And hearing some of the things they bring up...it’s hard. Hard to think about her love growing up like that. Hard to think how she came out like she is despite everything. And yes, she knew that they were coming from wildly different worlds. They talked a lot, she has never talked with someone more, and she knows the same is true for Juliana. Sure, she knew about her sleeping on a pull out couch for her whole life. Or having never tried sushi.

But she realizes how Juliana shared an sugar-coated version. And yes, some things were almost cute. Like Chino presenting to Juliana a glass of blackcurrant juice as if it was the most precious things in the world. And them both gushing about it because it’s almost like the one that they had once at some party at the trailer park and never managed to find again.

But then they would mention someone and Juliana would tell them how she was a close friend who killed herself because she preferred to die as she wanted rather than to die slowly and painfully for an illness that she could not afford the cure for. And yes, she was 16 and no, her dad had left when she was a kid and her mom when she was 14. And when they had asked shocked why authorities did nothing about it, after all, she was unsupervised teenager, not to mention sick, Juliana scoffed because if the police didn’t show up for the Great ‘Biscotto’ Fight they would certainly would not do so for that. And they find out that the Great Biscotto Fight was way less cute that it sounded, nothing to do with cookies, but rather started because supporters of a team had accused those of two other teams to have rigged the match, and ended with 4 deaths, 11 hospitalizations and don’t know how many injuries.

It’s also hard to reconcile the idea of Chino Valdes, the ruthless sicario (of course they had looked him up once they found out who he was), with Chino, the caring single dad (who also looks harmless and like their own dad).

‘I saw Juliana sleeping on the couch, is everything alright?’ Lucia asks joining breakfast.

Guille makes fun of Valentina for fighting with her girlfriend and exiling her to the couch, but she explains that Juliana was tossing and turning and decided to get up not to keep her up too, since she had an important day at the university.

‘By the way, have you seen...Leon?’ Lucia asks. It’s always a bit weird calling him that because yes, he looks like Leon, but he’s not her husband, but they can’t let anyone know...and sometimes he still doesn’t answer when you call him that.

Eva makes a snide comment about them not being able to keep track of their partners when Chino enters the room.

‘Where have you been?’

He holds up a plastic bag.

‘You went shopping? This early in the morning? By yourself?’

‘Clearly,’ he fishes from the bag a hot-water bottle before going to the kitchen.

They look at each other confused.

‘Why would you need that?’ even if he doesn’t like to be questioned, the curiosity can’t be helped.

‘Because I could find only one,’ he replies coming back, mug in one hand, picking up the bag with the one already holding the hot-water bottle. Yep, nobody would accuse him of being long-winded.

They look at each other and one by one they stand and follow him.

‘Hola mi niña, how do you feel?’ he kneels by the couch, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

‘I want to die,’

‘Lucky you, I happen to be an expert on that,’

‘Don’t make me laugh,’ Juliana groans. ‘It just hurts more,’

‘I got some meds, but you need to eat something first,’

‘I can’t,’ a strangled sound follows and Chino wordlessly hands her a bucket. As she finishes retching, he hands her a bottle of water that was laying by the couch and she rinses her mouth.

‘Drink this,’ he helps her in a sitting position. ‘I also got some crackers to settle your stomach,’ he hands her the hot mug and puts the packet on the couch next to her. ‘Eat those and then you can take something,’

‘Are you okay?’ Guille asks as Chino leaves the room with the bucket.

Valentina, Eva and Lucia all glare at Guille, because clearly Juliana is not fine. She looks like death warmed over.

‘Could be better,’ Juliana croaks out.

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘It’s nothing to wor-’ she stops, her face contorting into a pained grimace, curling in on herself.

‘Oh, this must have been for you,’ Lucia hurries to hand her the hot-water bottle.

‘Thanks,’ Juliana sluggish puts it under her shirt, on her back.

Meanwhile Chino comes back, empty and clean bucket in hand. ‘Have you eaten?’

She sluggishly brings a cracker to her mouth.

‘Good,’ he rummages in the bag. ‘Got this,’ he takes out a small box. ‘and also this, never seen it before, but maybe it’s worth a try to see if it works better,’ he shows her another box. ‘Also couldn’t find your usual brand, so I took a bunch and you can tell me,’

Juliana peers inside the bag. ‘Did you empty the shelf?’ she chuckles. ‘You’re the best,’

‘Are you like that for your period?’ Lucia asks frowning, seeing what’s in the bag Chino brought from his shopping.

Valentina backhands Guille in the stomach as he makes a distressed sound.

‘She gets very bad cramps,’ Chino answers while helping Juliana to lie down again after she had taken her meds.

‘Bad enough to thrown up?’ Eva joins.

Juliana shrugs as Chino tucks her in under a blanket.

‘You know that is not normal, right?’ Eva continues. From the look Juliana and Chino share, they didn’t. ‘You’re going to see a doctor,’ she states, leaving no room for dissent.

Valentina offers to stay at home but Juliana convinces her to go to University because she is gonna to be useless all day anyway, as the meds make her sleepy. Valentina promises to return as soon as she is done. And she does. And she finds Juliana cuddling on the couch with Chino...well, more like sleeping on him, looking marginally better.

‘You have anything to do?’

‘Not really?’ she answers him.

‘It’s time for a pillow change then,’ he tells her, starting to extricate from Juliana’s grip, who grumbles. ‘Shh, it’s alright, just need to pee,’

‘Te amo papi,’ she whispers drowsily, as she lets him go.

He gestures Valentina to take his place.

‘Te amo Val,’ Juliana quickly burrows into her. ‘Huele rico,’

She looks at Chino and they agree without speaking that this won’t be mentioned.

Valentina is scrolling through her phone when she suddenly looks up at Chino, who didn’t take back his place at Juliana’s side but he’s still sitting in the same room, keeping an eye on his girl.

‘Any idea why you’re trending?’ Eva is going to have a field day with it, she thinks as she sees his clueless face.

She checks it out and it’s a video. From the morning, she considers, as it shows him in the aisle of a supermarket, staring at the shelf and then grabbing a handful of products.

> _‘You buying that?’ a voice asks._
> 
> _‘Clearly,’ Chino doesn’t even turn to see who talked. He gets on with his business, now approaching the meds shelf._
> 
> _‘Isn’t it weird?’_
> 
> _‘What?’ he puts a box in his basket and then starts to read what’s written on another._
> 
> _‘Buying those,’_
> 
> _‘Why?’_
> 
> _‘You know, you’re a man...’_
> 
> _‘Well spotted,’ he finally turns towards the camera. ‘So what’s the problem?’ he challenges._
> 
> _‘It’s just...’_
> 
> _‘You know, nobody would say anything if I were buying flu meds for my girl. Why is this any different?’ he demands. ‘Should I make her go out and pick it up herself just to spare myself...what? The shame of buying feminine products? If you think this makes me less of a man...first of all, I don’t care. Second, I worry about what you think a man is. And third...even if it was true, I’d still do it. Now, if you excuse me, my baby girl is at home hurting and waiting for me,’_

‘I hope you appreciate my restraint,’ he mutters. Everyone keeps telling him that he needs to act more like Leon. More composed, less anger. Actually, no anger at all, if possible. ‘The nerves of some people,’

‘You get used to it,’ Valentina smiles at him understandingly. Knowing him a bit, she could see the effort he made to not snap at the person filming. ‘And I do,’ she adds. She knows that playing the part of Leon Carvajal doesn’t come easy to him. And yes, her dad probably would have been less sharp and challenging, but to be honest, he also would have never been caught in a supermarket, early morning, buying assorted period-related stuff. Or caught talking about it. She wonders for a moment if he would have had, if Valentina hadn’t had Eva and Chivis to help her deal with her first periods.

Surprisingly Eva doesn’t blow a gasket when she finds out about the video. The attention is mostly positive, praising his ‘progressive’ thinking and his love for his daughter (everything assumes he was talking about Valentina), girls and women sharing their own positive stories about the men in their lives...or urging others to follow his example. And it supports the narrative they are pushing, about Leon taking a step from business to enjoy more his family.

\---

During all of this, of course, there is always the tiny itty-bitty issue of someone having tried (and succeeded) to kill Leon. Chino isn’t particularly bothered by that until Juliana points out that if someone wanted Leon dead, they will probably try again, and she would very much prefer to avoid that.

Chino decides to start his own investigation, since everyone agrees that Montilla, the inspector in charge, is completely useless. Tormented by guilt because Leon actually died, but also less afraid of coming clean because Chino is not Leon, he was not the one she betrayed and he is not a saint himself, Lucia tells him the truth. And indeed Chino doesn’t judge her. Doesn’t particularly care either. As long as Johnny stays away from Juliana...and Valentina. He even agrees not to tell everyone else (it won’t be the first secret he keeps from Juliana, after all, considering what was his job) as long as she helps him taking Johnny down.

Just because Leon has a good excuse to stay out of the public eyes, it doesn’t mean that he can just disappear. At a certain point he has to attend an event he committed to many months before, with Lucia and Valentina accompanying him. Lucia because that’s expected from his wife as it’s a long weekend away in a beautiful location, and Valentina because the event is about a publishing sector she actually is interested in. Juliana stays at home because, as she tells both her girlfriend and her father, there is no reason for her to go...and no interest either. Valentina pouts but acquiesces with the promise that they will have a proper vacation soon, just the two of them. And Chino grumbles about not being interested either and not wanting to leave her alone, until Juliana reminds him that she used to stay alone at the trailer when he was away for ‘longer jobs’. Staying in a mansion with Eva, Mateo and Guille, not to mention all the personal, is not going to be a problem.

Juliana is returning home when she sees a familiar yet chilling scene. _Alacrán_ holding Eva against a car with his body, uncomfortably close. Juliana doesn’t think twice about charging and tackling him. Eva scrambles away as Alacrán stands up and focus his attention on Juliana. 

‘Well, look who we have? What are you doing here? Missed me so much you came to find me?’ he leers.

‘Missed you like I miss an intestinal parasite’

He doesn’t appreciate that and before she knows one hand is squeezing her neck.

‘You should be nicer to me,’

‘Go,’ Juliana manages to get out before she slams her head against his.

‘You bitch!’ he growls, whipping out his gun.

‘I’m going to have so much fun with you,’ he trails it across her neck and then her collarbone. ‘And then kill you like a pig. No daddy around anymore to protect you,’ he gloats, his free hand grabbing her arm and forcefully dragging her towards him.

He gets interrupted by the Carvajals’ security men, called by Eva. Juliana is pushed to the ground, gun to the head, Alacrán threatening to shoot her if they take another step.

‘I always knew I’d have you on your knees in one way or another,’

Eva is terrified. If she gets Juliana killed, Valentina will never forgive her. And she will be a dead woman. Chino will kill her...if Valentina doesn’t do that first.

Sirens distract him for a second and that’s enough for Juliana to elbow him in his knee and for the guards to shoot him.

‘I just want to go home,’ Juliana says as they are discussing what to do. Eva takes a look at her and nods. ‘Fabricio, deal with this, please,’

Juliana can see the hesitation and uncertainty on the head-guard’s face. ‘Call the police, tell them that someone tried to kidnap Eva and you shot him. Make sure to tell them that he called himself Alacrán, of the Cartel del la Sierra, when he tried to buy his freedom,’

Hearing that all the guards point their guns at him.

‘You’ll regret crossing me,’ he growls, pained. ‘I’ll make you pay for this,’

‘I regret crossing paths with you since the first day I met you and you killed my mom,’

‘Oh, and how I loved that,’

‘Rot in hell,’

‘I’ll say hi to your dad,’

When the others return from the trip...it’s not nice. They should have suspected something was wrong when Juliana didn’t come to greet them. Or when Eva went into Juliana’s room, the one she rarely uses because she usually stays with Valentina.

When she appears, she hovers into the doorway sheepishly. Lucia gasps, Valentina runs to her and frantically tries to check her over while also not wanting to hurt her touching her.

‘Nothing happened,’

Valentina is ready to argue because the rainbow of colours on her face says something else, when she notices that Juliana’s gaze is firmly on her dad.

‘Nothing happened,’ she repeats, looking at him meaningfully. She knows what’s the first thing he’ll think seeing her neck and the bruises on her arms.

‘Who?’ he spits out.

‘Alacrán,’

They watch as he becomes even more enraged, which they didn’t think possible. ‘I’ll kill him,’

‘Stop,’

‘I swear to God, I’ll knock you out if I have to!’

‘You can’t kill him,’

‘Watch me,’ he hisses.

‘Not with this body, don’t ruin everything,’ he doesn’t move of an inch, staring straight ahead. ‘And they arrested him,’

It takes a bit more of cajoling, but they manage to sit down. Eva and Juliana explain what happens.

‘Why didn’t you say something?’

‘What? That I slept with a mob boss and that he kept trying to blackmail me into using the grupo to money laundering for him?’

‘But you never did it, right?’ Valentina seeks reassurance, hoping that the picture she has of her sister won’t keep crumbling.

‘No. I used the excuse that I had no real say in the company because dad was kind of micromanaging and wanted to know everything that was going on and wanted to have the last word on everything,’

‘But now everyone knows that Leon took a step back and you’re taking over...,’

‘And everyone knew I was going to be away,’ Chino muses. His first official appearance after the wedding and the ‘attempted’ killing had been highly publicized. ‘We’re going to release the news of his arrest. Make sure to mention that if he talks, he could take down the whole cartel, and probably others too,’

‘Men like him don’t talk,’ Mateo points out when they tell him.

‘Oooh,’

‘What?’ everyone turns to Juliana, who has a look of understanding on her face.

‘They will make sure he won’t talk,’

‘We’re not publishing someone’s death warrant!’

‘You can do it. Or I can do it myself. I worked for them. I can easily contact them anonymously, tip them about the arrest and suggests that he might talk. Or I can always kill him. Anyway, he’s a dead man,’ it’s in times like these that they are starkly reminded that the one inhabiting Leon’s body was a sicario (and Juliana’s immediate understanding and lack of reaction reminds Valentina that this was her girlfriend’s life until not long ago).

EPILOGUE

‘Is this how it feels to be called to the principal’s office?’ Juliana wonders aloud as she and her dad sit down, the Carvajal family facing them. ‘What’s the problem now? Another hostile takeover of the company? Everybody is here so I’m excluding the ‘someone got arrested,’ everybody looks at Guille. ‘Another attempted blackmail? Attempted murder?’

Silence. They are sort of realizing exactly how much they all went through.

‘When you say it like that this doesn’t seem like a problem at all,’ Valentina comments.

‘Care to share?’ Chino asks.

‘Rumours are starting to go around, about you two,’

‘Are they rumours if they are true?’

‘What do you think they are about?’

‘Me being his secret child? Well, Leon’s secret love child. But I’m actually his so,’

‘They are saying you are lovers,’

‘¿ _Qué_ ?? Ewww!!,’

‘Why the fuck would they think so?’

‘Wouldn’t be the first time he gets a much younger partner,’

They ignore Eva’s jab. ‘But haven’t they seen me with Val?’ Juliana can’t wrap her head around it. They don’t go out that much, but she is definitely out with Valentina much more often than she is out with her dad.

‘They see what they want to see,’

‘Okay, besides being disgusting, why is it a problem? It’s not true and anyone who see them together will realize it,’ Chino points out, nodding towards his daughter and Valentina.

‘Yes, that’s another thing,’ Eva nods. ‘No matter what I think of Lucia,’ she makes a face and the blonde rolls her eyes. ‘Leon Carvajal cheating on his wife after just some months of marriage is not a good look for the company. They might accept him taking a step back because the scare had him revaluating his priorities and he wants to put his family first. They might accept that he’s changed by the experience, and that’s why his personality is different. But having a mid-life crisis on top of that, with a...well, teenage girl? That might be too much. Especially if they think that he's neglecting the business for that,’ Eva stops. 'Wait, where was I?’

‘Juliana and Valentina?’

‘Right. That’s another reason why we need to shut down the mere idea of anything going on between you two,’ Juliana and Chino grimace. ‘Because if it spreads and then the truth comes out...it’s going to seem like Valentina stole the girl from her dad,’

‘And they will think I’m a gold-digging whore who went from one family member to another,’ Juliana finishes.

‘Sorry,’

Juliana waves away Eva’s apologies because it’s true and it’s not her fault. ‘So what do you want me to do? Stop going out with dad?’

‘I don’t think that’s necessary,’ Valentina gives Eva a look.

‘I’m open to suggestions,’ Eva sits back, because that’s exactly what she was thinking.

‘What about a statement?’ Chino suggests.

‘We don’t do that. Not about personal things,’ Eva shoots it down.

‘But what if it’s a _statement’_ Guille air quotes the last word.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You know, show don’t tell,’

‘What are thinking about?’

‘The gala. And we go all out,’

‘What gala?’

They explain that it’s a charity gala, probably the most important one in the country. And that the whole family is always invited, along with anyone who is someone in the country. There are no interviews allowed on the red carpet to help focus on the charity part of the evening, which goes to their advantage, but there are few events with more exposure than that. Showing up as a family would definitely send a message of unity.

‘I told you that getting that suit was a good idea,’ Juliana tells her dad. One of their last outings had been to get some new clothes. Juliana has some great pictures of them trying on similar clothes. Her favourite is them in black suits and sunglasses, back to back. However they had mostly shopped for Chino. She had already done her fair share of shopping with Valentina, especially as she had come to Mexico City with barely any clothes. But Chino had been using Leon’s and they were neither his style nor well-fitting anymore, since he took up his fitness regime again. What? He had been basically confined to the house for a period, and between the need to do something not to go crazy and to let go pent up energy...besides he had always enjoyed training, especially when Juliana joins him. (And yeah, if him becoming buffer had been noticed and attributed to the need of keeping up with someone so much younger...). Seeing Leon in a t-shirt and a loose, unzipped hoodie had been weird and they had agreed that maybe they should try to adapt Chino’s style to Leon’s body and composure.

‘I think you should come too,’

‘What?’

Chino doesn’t know why Lucia is saying it, but he nods. ‘Yeah, if I have to parade around dressed like a penguin, you should suffer with me,’ 

‘Look, even if we show up together, they will still think that we are doing it to stop the rumours, and that he might still have someone on the side,’ Lucia explains.

‘But if you are there too, it’s clear that you’re not a secret hidden away, that you’re part of the family,’

‘Yeah, and how do you explain that?’

'If you’re ready, I’m ready,’ Valentina says, knowing what Juliana is thinking. That would mean coming out. Officially. ‘And it’s not like we’re hiding it anyway. Like we said before, they are just too blind to see it. And honestly I would rather do it on our terms,’

Lucho has kept it silent for the moment. Not sure if it’s because he thinks that Juliana is not around anymore, if he thinks Eva dealt with it, or if he just doesn’t want people to know Valentina left him for a girl. Or maybe Chino properly scared him off. Like in the show Lucho shows up at the house drunk to confront Valentina. Chino sees him manhandling Valentina and yelling at her and intervenes, forcing him to let her go and yelling back at him. And Lucho asks him if he knows what Valentina is doing with Juliana, using very offensive terms and Chino is like ‘Don’t you dare speaking about my daughter like that,’ and ‘Valentina made her choice, clearly the right one, and if I see you around her again, if you dare to lay an hand on her again, it will be the last thing you do.’ Valentina was shaken by the experience and he comforted her. It was the first time they had hugged since Valentina had tried in the hospital and Chino didn’t react well. It also had been the start of them getting a bit more comfortable with each other. Like Chino sometimes kissing the crown of her head after he had just done the same with Juliana. Or Valentina giving him a quick kiss on the cheek as she says goodbye.

On the day of the gala, all the eyes are on the Carvajal family getting out of the limo. There is a moment of ‘suspense’ as Valentina and Leon stay on each side of the open door, hand extended. Juliana gets out.

‘Ready?’

‘Not really, but let’s go,’

‘That's my girl,’ Chino squeezes her arm before joining Lucia and offering her his arm. Juliana does the same with Valentina (they might or might not have been trained). ‘Please don’t leave me alone,’ she mutters as they walk the red carpet, trying to keep a smile on her face.

‘Looking like that I won’t let you out of my sight,’

And she doesn’t. Having the whole family there means they have a table all for them. The seating is strategic. Lucia, Leon, Juliana, Valentina, Eva, Mateo, Guille. Make things easier and more comfortable. Like Juliana leaning over to whisper into Valentina’s ears that she has no idea which fork she is supposed to use. Valentina guides her hand to the right one (what? Any excuse is good to hold her hand) and then Juliana subtly nudges her dad, waving the chosen fork...because she knows he was struggling with that too.

Because it’s a gala, there is music too. And Juliana asks Valentina to dance. When they finish their dance and the music change, they return to their table.

‘Care to dance?’ Juliana offers her hand to Lucia, having seen her moving to the rhythm of the songs.

‘Oh, I don’t-couldn’t,’ she looks at Leon and then at Valentina.

‘Our lessons didn’t advance to other things besides bachata, for now,’ Juliana says, and Valentina smiles at her step-mother, nodding.

That’s one of the moment captured by the four photos published by the official accounts of the gala portraying the Carvajals. One is of Leon and Lucia arriving. One is everyone sitting at the round table. One is Juliana and Valentina dancing. And the last one is Valentina leaning towards her dad, chin on his shoulder, as they watch Juliana and Lucia dancing and having fun.

Other outlets are more interested in the sudden official appearance of Juliana at the side of the family after she had been previously spotted with Leon. They come up with a whole range of possible explanations, from Juliana being Leon’s secret child to her being Lucia’s secret child or Lucia’s sister. Everything except the clear and much simpler truth.

 _‘_ _Señorita_ _,_ _señorita_ _,_ what can you tell us about the girl who was with you at the gala?’ ‘Who is she?’ ‘What’s her name?’ ‘Is she your sister?’

That makes Valentina stops. ‘To protect her privacy I won’t disclose her identity, but what I can tell you is that you know my siblings, I have two and she is not one of them,’

‘Who is she to you?’

‘What do you think?’ she shoots back. ‘What if it had been my brother bringing a girl to the gala? What would you have thought? That she was his sister?’

‘Are you saying that the girl is your brother’s girlfriend?’

Valentina lets out a sigh, puts on her sunglasses and leaves.


	4. Photographer!Juliana AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally inspired by Maca's NYC photoshoot by Shannon Beveridge. It was also my first attempt at playing with moodboards, which are put as links because I have no idea how (or even if it's possible) to incorporate them here.

Valentina at an exhibition and there is a series of photos that touches her soul. She is blown away. She is not the only one. As she stares at the photos she hears a couple of people talking about the results being impressive considering what the photographer used…‘Imagine what could it be with the proper equipment.’

It doesn’t take long for Valentina to find out who the photographer is: Juliana Valdes. The organizer, Beltran, is also Juliana’s mentor and is more than happy to talk about her…as well as to talk about the newest and best camera models available on the market.

Juliana is shocked when Beltran hands her a brand new camera, apparently courtesy of someone who really liked her photos. The accompanying note is very simple, saying how much they liked the photos and that she should keep up the good work. And a phone number. She is wary, but she was raised to be polite so she texts the number to thank for the gift. They exchange some texts. Then one day Valentina sends her a picture of something that reminded her of one of Juliana’s photos. So they start exchanging photos too. But never of themselves. Then from something Juliana writes Valentina realises that Juliana thinks she is a man! So she proposes a meeting. 

When they meet Juliana stares at her speechless. Valentina thinks it’s because she recognised her…until Juliana blurts out how beautiful her eyes are and if she can take a photo. Then she apologises for going in photographer mode instead of behaving like a normal person. Valentina is charmed. They get to talk. Now that they met in person and found that they are close in age (and Juliana realised that Valentina is not some guy who was hoping to get something in return for his gift), they get a bit more into details than on the phone. Juliana explains how she got into photography, even if she doesn’t say that the need to capture the moment that she always felt since being a little girl was because the happy moments were so few that she felt like she needed reminders for the dark times.

Valentina asks her if she wants to be a photo-reporter. ‘Too bad,’ she says when Juliana tells her it’s not her preferred career. ‘I could have put a good word for you.’ She is joking but not completely.

Juliana instead is confused. ‘I thought you said you are still studying…’

‘I don’t know how to say it without sounding like an asshole,’

‘I doubt you’d ever be able to sound like an asshole,’ Juliana reassures her.

‘Do you know who I am?’

‘Uhmm…Valentina? Journalist student? Though a rich one seeing the camera you got me just because you liked my photos,’ Juliana answers.

‘There was no just,’ Valentina says. Then she smiles, if a bit embarrassed. She knew that Juliana didn’t know who she was while texting her, since she thought she was a guy. But she thought that she’d recognise her after meeting in person…and yes, she is aware of how that makes her sound. ‘I’m all of that. Valentina Carvajal,’ she holds out her hand as if meeting all over again.

‘Juliana Valdes, but you already knew that,’ she shakes her hand amused. ‘Wait. Carvajal like the media empire Carvajal?’

‘That’s us,’ she confirms.

‘Are you saying that I have an in with the boss?’

‘Well, that would be my dad. And then my sister,’

‘So…’

Valentina braces herself for the request. Sooner or later they always arrive.

‘Are you studying journalism because you like it or because it’s sort of expected?’

That wasn’t what she was expecting. Juliana misunderstands her reaction. ‘I’m sorry, it’s none of my business. And I’m not saying that even if you’re doing it because of family expectations you can’t enjoy it…or that it’s wrong,’

‘Don’t worry. I was just surprised. Nobody ever asked me that,’

They talk more. Valentina asks about Juliana’s future projects. Juliana tells her of her collaboration with an association that supports the families of women with breast cancer. They are going to have a campaign selling roses to raise money and Juliana is going to shoot the photos to publicise it. She shows Val a sketch of what she is thinking to do and tells her how the board had liked her ideas. And how now it’s a matter to find a model, hopefully one who will agree to do it for free. After all it’s all for charity, and Juliana has refused to get paid too.

‘I can do it,’

‘What?’

‘I can be the model, if you want,’ Valentina repeats. ‘I’m not a model and I’ve never done it before, so I understand if you want someone who-’

‘Really?’

‘Paparazzi don’t count,’

‘No, I mean, would you really do that?’ Juliana asks, incredulity and awe in her voice. ‘I have no doubts you’d be a great model,’

‘Yes.’

‘Why?’ Juliana can’t stop herself. ‘Sorry, you don’t need to explain yourself to me,’

‘My mom had breast cancer,’ Valentina says softly.

Juliana takes her hand. ‘I’m so sorry,’

‘And we had all the money to get her the best cures and for her to stay at home and to get her the best of the best…and it was terrible. And I can only imagine what other people go through. So if I can help…I want to do it.’

They agree that Juliana will take the photos and then show them to the people in charge to get approval. It’s not her job to get the model and she doesn’t want anyone to be in an uncomfortable position if they don’t agree.

Once she has the photos she meets with Barbara, the president of the association. And she shows her the photos.

[[moodboard 1]](https://kiarcheo.tumblr.com/private/190574429534/tumblr_i6lu4A14uhqCPGC79)

‘They are perfect…’

‘But?’ Juliana can hear it in Barbara’s voice.

‘But do you know the model looks like Valentina Carvajal?’

‘And is that a problem?’

‘Not for me. It would surely get us more attention than usual. Not sure she’d approve of us using that, though…and we can’t afford a legal dispute with a Carvajal,’

‘That’s not going to happen,’ Juliana reassures her once she realises that she is worried about a potential lawsuit. She makes a phone call. ‘Hi! Are you still at the coffee shop? Can you come to my flat? See you.’

Juliana tells Barbara that she’ll explain things in a bit, and meanwhile they catch up. Juliana had lived with Barbara for a while when things with her mom had gone south. Beltran couldn’t take her in because he had his own family and not enough space, but he had called his good friend to see if she could help…and meeting Juliana Barbara had seen something special in her and offered her a place to stay. Now Juliana lives on her own, but she hasn’t forgotten about what Barbara did for her…and helping with the association is also a way to give back to her.

The doorbell interrupts their chat. Juliana goes to open the door and a smiling Valentina appears. Barbara watches astonished as she enthusiastically hugs Juliana before holding up a paper bag. She brought sweets!

Juliana introduces the two. ‘Val, this is Barbara, the president of the association. Barbara, this is Valentina,’

‘How did you get Valentina Carvajal to pose for you? Us?’ Barbara is still looking amazed.

‘She offered, actually,’

‘As you probably knows my mom,’ Valentina starts but Barbara interrupts her with a hand on her arm and a sympathetic nod. She doesn’t need to tell her. Valentina smiles thankfully as Juliana fidgets a bit because apparently it’s common knowledge…and she didn’t know. ‘When Juliana told me what she was doing…I thought about her. About what we went through. And how most people don’t have our possibilities. And if I can help even just one of those women, just one of those family….to make it even just a little bit better…I want to do it.’

_Months later_

‘Did you know about this?’

Leon sighs. So much for an uneventful family breakfast. ‘About what?’

‘This’ Eva shoves her phone into his face. ‘Did you know?’ she repeats the question addressing her brother. If someone knew, it would be him.

‘Good morning,’ Valentina cheerfully greets her family joining them.

‘You!’ Eva turns around.

Valentina is taken aback. ‘Me?’

‘Care to explain this?’ Eva takes back her phone that her dad and brother were still looking at to show it to her sister.

‘Oh,’ Valentina bites her lower lip. ‘Are you upset?’ she looks from under her lashes at her sister and then at her dad. She knows that Guille will have her back in any case.

‘Of course not!’ Eva relaxes her stance. As soon as she has seen what the association does, she had understood why Valentina had chosen to be the face of their campaign. And she felt proud of her sister. ‘I just wish you would have told us,’

‘And maybe that you’d have a shirt on,’

Valentina laughs at her dad’s words. ‘Don’t worry, it was just Juls and me, nobody else seeing anything,’

‘And who would be Juls?’ he asks, eyebrow raised.

‘The photographer,’

‘And is it possible to meet this Juls?’

Valentina squints suspiciously at her sister. ‘Why?’

‘The photos are very good, and you know that we have that photoshoot coming up…’

Eva turns to her brother surprised at him supporting her for a change…and at what he is saying. ‘I thought we were going to use Henry as usual…’

‘Why not change, forge new collaborations…’ he gives her a meaningful look. He wants to meet this Juls too.

‘I will ask,’ Valentina concedes. She is still a bit suspicious, but she isn’t going to deny Juliana an opportunity like that. It would be good money and a sure way to get her name out there.

_Days later_

‘Juls!’ Valentina hugs her as soon as she steps foot into the house. The rest of the family had followed her as she had hurried to the door and watch them as they rock back and forth, arms around each other.

‘You saw me two days ago!’ Juliana laughs but doesn’t break the hug.

‘And it feels like ages. Didn’t you miss me?’ she lets her go and pouts at her.

‘You know I always miss you,’ Juliana gives her a sideway hug before going towards the other people present still tucked into Valentina’s side.

‘Juliana Valdes,’ she introduces herself, hand stretched out.

‘You’re Juls?’

‘Were you expecting someone else? Something different?’ Juliana looks between the dark haired woman and Valentina.

‘I just thought you were a guy,’ Eva explains.

Valentina and Juliana exchange a look and smile, remembering how Juliana had thought that Valentina was a guy.

‘Well, I hope I’m not too much of a disappointment,’

‘You would never,’ Valentina quickly shuts down her self-deprecation.

They sit down and talk a bit. Especially about how Juliana got involved with the campaign and then how Valentina did. Then they ask if they can see some of her other works. If she is indeed as good as Valentina says, they have every intention to follow through with their plan to offer her a collaboration, even if it started just as a way to meet her.

Juliana takes out her tablet from her bag and shows them some photos. Then Eva notices that there is a folder called Val and she asks about it. After receiving a nod from Valentina Juliana opens the folder.

‘Wait, when was this?’ Guille wonders aloud as he looks at photos of his sister in a tank top by the sea.

[[moodboard 2]](https://kiarcheo.tumblr.com/private/190574414319/tumblr_mUXg131IINpPCxBLB)

‘Remember that project I had to go to New York for?’

‘The one that has been short-listed for the award?’ Leon asks. He was very proud when she told him that.

‘Yes. Well, Juliana took the photos,’

She had received a budget for that project and if she had used it to pay for Juliana’s tickets instead of her own…well, it’s not like she couldn’t afford it. And the results had been brilliant. Not to mention spending time with Juliana, which is always a plus.

‘You look tired,’

‘Wasn’t there for a vacation, you know?’ Valentina rolls her eyes at her sister. Of course she can’t just say that the photos are beautiful.

‘They are gorgeous,’ she smiles at her brother.

‘You’re very talented,’ Leon agrees.

‘Not that hard when you have a subject as beautiful as Val,’

‘The light, though,’ Eva joins in. ‘That’s all you, or not?’

‘She is great, isn’t she?’ Valentina praises her.

Eva takes hold of the tablet with little more than a nod to ask permission. She scrolls through the photos. ‘You have a lot of photos of my sister,’ she comments.

[[moodboard 3]](https://kiarcheo.tumblr.com/private/190574397394/tumblr_Ds0Io7XBGYlR4YjNa)

‘Like I said, she is a great subject,’ Juliana tries to appear unaffected by the scrutiny.

‘And yet you haven’t posted them anywhere…It would be good publicity…’

‘I’m not with her for publicity!’ Juliana cuts her off. A sharp breath. ‘I mean,’ Valentina takes her hand and squeezes it.

‘Good to know,’ Eva continues looking at the picture, nonplussed. ‘If you could keep it quiet until after the Grupo photoshoot it would be great. Favouritism never look good.’

[[moodboard 4]](https://kiarcheo.tumblr.com/private/190574357024/tumblr_V3Nup8mnUThmowUS9)


	5. Juliantina Appreciation Week - Day 2: AU - part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one that started as Pen Pals AU and then took an unexpected turn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It had been sitting in my drafts for months and inspiration has been in the negatives, but I wanted to post something for the Juliantina Appreciation Week on Tumblr, so I tried to tidy it up a bit at least. Second part coming soon as I don't have anything for the other days...except maybe another AU for the Free Day on Sunday, if I manage it.
> 
> Also time and timelines are social constructs and shouldn’t be taken seriously in this fic...mostly because they make no sense.

Valentina’s school in Canada takes part to a pen-pal program. The lucky one receiving Val’s letter is naturally Juliana. Neither girl put too much stock in it initially (nobody at their schools do, actually. Actual letters…how antiquate). But they quickly find themselves getting into it. Under the relief of relative anonymity – the letters are sent to the schools that redistribute them, so they only know each other’s name, they find it easier to share their minds and troubles. Valentina talks about dealing with her mom’s death, being away from her family and home and missing them. Juliana talks about feeling always out of place, too American for her dad who doesn’t speak English, as much of the trailer park she lives in, too Mexican for her schoolmates. She talks about her dad not caring about her, about her mom loving her but not putting her first before her husband. Of course, they also write about normal things, their preferences, their days, their dreams.

It quickly becomes an intense correspondence, almost a daily thing. Sort of. Because while Val would be willing to send a letter a day, Juliana can’t really do that. Well, perhaps she could, she is saving money from odd jobs, but once Valentina sensed her hesitation she was quick to draw the conclusion from other implicit and explicit things Juliana wrote and shot her own proposal down herself. So they stick to the schools’ schedule. So it’s a monthly exchange, except that it’s a bunch of letters every time instead of just one like all the other students (the ones that bother to keep up with the program at least). And it raises some eyebrows. So one day Juliana gets called in because they think something weird is going on. And basically they inform her that they are going to open some of the letters to make sure that nothing inappropriate is happening. Juliana is not happy but she also has nothing to hide. And indeed the excerpts they read are completely normal and innocent, if sometimes weird.

‘Dear Juls,

I admit that I read all the letters instead of reading and replying one by one as usual. I couldn’t sleep and your words kept me company. But don’t worry, I’ll still reply to every single one […]’

‘Dear Juls,

I looked at the video of the kangaroo you told me about and now I’m absolutely terrified of them! I thought they were cute and all, but NO! Thanks for ruining that :P […]’

‘Dear Juls,

Hope your test went well […]’

‘Dear Juls,

The drawing you sent me is absolutely amazing. You’re so talented!!! I wish I could do that too. As you can see, I’m terrible (sticky person drawing) I’d love to see more of them![…]’

Reassured that nothing untoward is going on, but just two enthusiastic (if lonely) girls having found an output for their feelings and thoughts…they let it go.

As the end of the academic year approaches and with that the end of the program, Valentina takes the first step and writes her phone number in one of the letter, telling Juliana she’d love to keep in touch if she feels comfortable with it.

So they start texting each other. Until one night Valentina texts Juliana because she can’t sleep. They text for a bit before Valentina asks if she can call Juliana…she falls asleep to the sound of Juliana’s voice.

Texts. Calls. Next step is video-calls. Knowing Juliana’s love for fashion, Val likes to ask her opinion on clothes and accessories. Usually sending pictures. But then one day she is out shopping and wants a second opinion and realises that the back and forth via text is not the optimal way to discuss stuff…so she video-calls her. 

More than one year into their friendship and of course they had talked about meeting in person. But it’s not like Juliana can actually go to her mom and tells her she wants to go to Canada to meet her best friend. Not even talking about her dad. And that’s not even considering the money factor. Which of course is not a problem for Valentina. With the excuse of visiting some prospective universities in the US, she organises a trip to see Juliana.

Meeting in person is everything they hoped and more. Valentina decides to share the last ‘secret’ with Juliana, her surname and who her family is. The lack of reaction confirms that she made the right choice. In exchange Juliana shares more about the true reality of her life. Valentina is many things but not horrified, scared or pitying...Juliana too knows that she made the right choice.

They are constantly in touch. Valentina tells Juliana how her family thinks she has a boyfriend because she is always on the phone (not that she has ever been like that with Charles anyway). Juliana reveals that her mom asked her about it too. Of course she told Lupe that it was a girl...and that didn’t go down that well, if the amount of times she is now mentioning boys and asking her if she likes anyone and suggesting possible boyfriends is a sign. She didn’t tell Valentina before because she didn’t want to make things weird.

Time passes. Valentina is in Mexico going to University. She starts to complain to Juliana about Eva setting her up on dates and pushing her towards family friends and other rich acquaintances. Talking about Valentina needing to start thinking about settling down. As things seem to get worse Juliana tells her that she doesn't think that her family would actually force her to marry someone. Besides she is still young, what’s the rush? Valentina reveals how that’s pretty much what happened with Eva. That she got lucky with Mateo, whom she had started to date because her dad thought it was a good ‘party’ and who turned out to be a great guy. But now Eva somehow has in her mind that she needs to do the same for Valentina, and honestly her choices...she even tried to set her up with Sergio. And now she is really pushing for her to go out with Lucho. And while Valentina knows that her dad has a soft spot for her, being the youngest, she also knows that he wouldn’t be against that at all. After all that’s what he did for Eva.

‘Honestly, you don’t know her. She is just so stubborn and she never listens to me. I swear that the only thing that would stop her attempts would be if I was already married,’

‘What’s that face? Val?’ Juliana tries to get Val’s attention. ‘Val!’

‘What?’

‘Welcome back. What’s going on in your pretty head?’

‘I should get married,’

‘Wasn’t that the whole point? That you don’t want to get married?’

‘Certainly not to someone Eva chooses for me,’

‘Okaay?’ Juliana trails off.

‘I want to choose for myself,’

‘That’s perfectly understandable,’ she nods to show that she is following Val’s reasoning. ‘I’m sure you won’t have any problems, anyone would be lucky to marry you,’

‘What about you? Want to marry me?’

Juliana laughs but then their conversation gets interrupted and the topic left alone for a while. Until the next setting-up attempt by Eva and Valentina’s complaints about it to Juliana.

‘So still no luck on finding someone to marry?’ Juliana teases her, hoping to lift her spirits.

‘You know, I was serious about it,’

‘About getting married to stop Eva from marrying you off?’ Juliana raises an eyebrow. Is Valentina aware of how that sounds?

‘And about marrying you,’

‘I’m sorry,’ Juliana chokes out. ‘What?’

\-----------------

Once Valentina convinces Juliana that she is seriously proposing marriage and not joking, Juliana isn’t necessarily against it. She doesn’t care for marriage and if it would help Valentina out...she’d do pretty much anything for her.

They talk about it a lot. Juliana asking Valentina if she is sure she doesn’t want to wait and marry for love, and Valentina telling her that she isn’t sure that she believes in love anyway. ‘Not romantic love anyway,’ she adds. ‘I love you very much’. Valentina worrying about taking away Juliana’s chances to have a family...and Juliana telling her that with the family she got, she doesn’t really want one. They both love each other very much and the last thing they want is to do something that will hurt, even if unintentionally, the other.

They have the sex talk too. Juliana saying that she never felt the need for it and she thinks she can go on like that, but won’t Valentina miss it? Valentina saying she wouldn’t be missing much anyway.

‘But...you know, I liked Charles enough and it was fun...I definitely love you more than I’ve ever liked him...’

‘Are you saying you want to have sex with me?’ she hopes it comes out teasing and more confident that she actually feels.

‘Are you saying you’d be interested?’ Valentina keeps the tone light, not wanting to spook Juliana, but definitely interested in the reply.

‘ _Que rapida me saliste_ ,’ Juliana teases her, avoiding to answer. ‘You haven’t even kissed me yet,’

Once they decide that yes, they are getting married, Valentina takes charge. They decide they’ll get married in the US because there are less chances for her to be recognized. She wants to stop Eva and choose for herself, but she doesn’t want to make a scandal. She researches where they should get married, finding a place that guarantees confidentiality (and has the records to support it). She books a photographer who seems to have absolutely no ties to Mexico or Latin-America but whose work is good. The reason she is marrying Juliana might be unusual, but she’ll be damned if she won’t give her best friend the best wedding that she can.

Which includes a stunning wedding dress. Which takes some convincing because Juliana wasn’t particularly happy about having Valentina pay for that. But she also knows that she can’t afford anything that would be good enough to get married to Valentina in, so she relents. She stands firm on the rings issue, though, and presents Val with those that had belonged to her grandparents. She tells her how Lupita was supposed to get them but never did because her grandmother hadn’t approved of Chino and Chino had taken offense at the ‘suggestion’ that he couldn't buy the rings himself and had refused to use them for the wedding.

It wasn’t actually intentional. Juliana had planned to blow all her savings to get some decent rings when she happened to visit her grandmother. Or better. When Chino had forced the family to take a trip and then told Juliana to get lost because he had stuff to do, and Lupe had given her some money to take the bus and see her mom.

Her grandmother hadn’t been surprised to see her alone, just resigned. While talking, she noticed Juliana smiling at her phone and asked who she was talking to. Used to Lupe’s noisy questions (and hopes for a boy’s name as answer) she just says that it’s her best friend. When, at the end of her visit, her grandma presents her with the rings, saying that best friends make for good marriages, Juliana protests. And she tells her that while she IS planning to marry her best friend, her best friend is a girl. She knows what the rings mean to her grandma and she doesn’t want to take them for something she won’t approve. Except that her grandma surprises her. Tell her about the nice gay couple living down the street that always offer to help her when they see her coming back from groceries with heavy bags, about her hairdresser’s daughter who had found herself a girlfriend at the office she works at...anyone who can put a smile on Juliana’s face like that, she is okay with them.

And that’s how grandma Consuelo ended up being the only family member present at the wedding (and no surprises, she loves Valentina, and Valentina loves her).

Juliana agrees to move to Mexico after the wedding (and the honeymoon). She had a falling out with Lupe that started with Lupe’s suspicions about her liking girls and Valentina being a bad influence (not that she ever met her) and ended with Juliana letting go years of frustration and pain about Chino and his shady business and Lupe never putting her first.

Juliana finds a job in a restaurant and she also applies for scholarships at Rafaela’s fashion school. Valentina pointed her towards it, but Juliana applies through regular channels and no mention is made of her being married to Valentina.

Valentina moves out from the family mansion claiming that she wants to be able to live her own live, that she needs her space and her freedom. Her dad doesn’t like it, but he rationalises it with the fact that she is used to be by herself since she has been to Canada. She surprisingly has Eva’s support...who tries to push the narrative that she is leaving the house because she is uncomfortable with Lucia living there. Valentina doesn’t mind Lucia, but if it makes her living with Juliana easier, she is going to take it. Not that anyone knows about it. She is keeping the reveal for when Eva starts again pushing her towards marriage...but now her sister doesn’t have time to plot her marriage, because she is trying to stop one, that of her dad to Lucia.

To be honest, it took some time for Valentina to fully realize it too.

‘OMG, we’re married!’ she gasps.

‘Yes, and?’ Juliana doesn’t look up from her sketch.

‘No, you don’t understand! We are married!’

‘I know, I was there when it happened,’

‘No, but, like, we love each other, we are married, we live together, we have sex,’ Valentina grabs her arm. ‘We are married!’

‘Everything you said is true, and yet I still don’t understand what you’re getting at,’

‘Until now I’ve been thinking of you as my best friend...whom I married. But you’re like...my wife. 100% my wife. There is no difference between us and all the other married couple,’

‘I’d have something to object about that,’ Juliana jokes.

‘We’re definitely cuter,’ Valentina agrees. ‘But still...did you know it?’

‘That we are married?’ Juliana chuckles.

Valentina nods.

‘Since that time we said ‘te amo’ after making love.’

They decide that Juliana won’t attend Leon’s wedding because it would likely mean coming out AND telling people about their marriage and Valentina doesn’t want anything to take away from her dad and Lucia’s special day.

And then the tragedy happens. Leon gets killed on his wedding day.


	6. Juliantina Appreciation Week - Day 2: AU - part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How things could have gone if Juliana had been Valentina's wife when the events at the beginning of the novela happened.

In the chaos that follows Leon’s death nobody pays attention to the brunette supporting Valentina. When Valentina begs and cries that she wants to go home and Juliana promises that she won’t leave her alone and will take care of her, they reluctantly let her go, at the same time relieved because if she is safe with a friend, they have something less to worry about.

Because she has Juliana at her side, Valentina doesn’t spiral into alcohol and drugs.

Then one day Valentina arrives home with Jacobo (who doesn’t look like Chino...or better, Chino looks like Beltran) and she presents him to Juliana as their new driver.

‘Who is paying him?’

Valentina reassures her that it’s dealt with, it’s not something she needs to worry about. After what happened and with her refusal to go back to live at the family’s home, Eva insisted on her getting a driver to be safer.

‘That’s exactly what I mean. If Eva is paying him, does it mean he’s going to report back to her?’ Juliana points out. ‘No offense,’ she gives the man a tight smile.

‘Of course, I’m so stupid,’

‘Ehi, none of that,’ Juliana stops her. ‘You’re not stupid, or naive, or whatever you were going to say. You’re trusting. That's different. And it’s amazing that despite everything you still find it in your heart to see the good in everyone. And I love it, and I never want you to lose it. I can be bitter and distrustful for the both of us,’

In all of this Jacobo is watching this happening. He sits down with Juliana offering him something to drink while Valentina tries to sort out the payment thing.

‘Done. He’s officially on our payroll,’

‘Yours, you mean,’

‘What’s mine is yours, babe, remember?’ Valentina’s response is automatic, used to Juliana’s remarks. ‘Anyway, Juliana, meet Jacobo Reyes, our driver,’

‘Your driver,’

‘Juliana,’ she sighs.

‘No, Val, seriously. He’s just one person, he can’t drive both of us. Besides, I don’t need a driver,’

‘Neither do I,’

‘You’ve never taken a bus in your life before meeting me,’ Juliana points out. ‘But that’s not the point. If it’s for security reasons, I’m not the one who needs him, I’m no one’

Valentina huffs, knowing that she is right. ‘Okay. Fine. But if I don’t need him or we’re going somewhere together, you’ll let him drive you,’

‘Fine,’

‘Fine.’ Valentina then turns to the man. ‘Jacobo, meet Juliana, my wife,’

Jacobo almost chokes on the water he was drinking. ‘W-wi-wife??’ he splutters.

‘Any problem with that?’ Juliana immediately takes a protective stance in front of Valentina, head high, staring at him unflinchingly.

He can’t bear the disappointment and sadness he can see starting to appear in Valentina’s eyes, ‘I’m...just...surprised. Yes. I didn’t know,’ he nods, almost as if it will help to convince himself too.

‘Nobody does. And we would appreciate if it stayed like that,’ Juliana interrupts him and her request sounds more like a demand, with an underlining threat.

‘With everything going on it’s just not the right moment,’ Valentina tries to explain.

Jacobo just nods, hoping to look understanding and trustful. But you can bet that as soon as he is dismissed he runs to Camilo to vent about it. Because his little girl is married! To another girl! And nobody told him!

Camilo calms him down. Tells him that it’s the 21st century. That just because Valentina had a boyfriend it doesn’t mean anything. That he didn’t know Juliana was her wife, but that she had been there for Valentina after his murder. That he better accepts it if he doesn’t want to lose Valentina again. Besides, what is he going to do? Demand they break up? He’s just her new driver. And yes, the plan was to get hired by the family to figure out who is the responsible for his murder, and being Valentina’s driver is not particularly helpful but does he really want to mess that up? An opportunity to get closer to his daughter? And if Valentina dismisses him because she thinks he has problems with her wife, it’s unlikely he’ll get to stay with the family with another job since he was hired specifically to protect Valentina...

Initially, like Juliana predicted, he drives only Valentina, and that helps him to get to terms with the situation, indirectly getting used to the fact that his baby girl is in love and married...because Valentina LOVES to talk about her wife, well, more like gushing about her.

And then of course he also sees them together.

The first time he drives both, Juliana holding the front door open for Valentina and replying to her questioning wife that she told her how she likes to sit in the front next to the driver and not in the back...

‘So, what? You’re going to sit in the back alone?’

‘Well...yes?’

‘Don’t be silly, I’ll move to the front once we drop you off,’

Valentina asking him to stop in front of a restaurant, and Juliana coming out, white t-shirt and black apron clearly identifying her as one of the waitresses. Juliana asking if they had lunch already and then coming back with food for all three of them.

Juliana and Valentina discussing the groceries list, Valentina adding stuff to it because she saw a recipe that she wants to try...because while they often eat things from the restaurant that Juliana takes home (or when Valentina stops to visit), they take turns cooking.

And like...it is not what Leon envisioned for his little girl, but Juliana clearly loves her and also clearly doesn’t care about her money or status. And Valentina loves her back, and is happy and cared for...what more could he ask for?

And maybe he lowers his guard a bit and slips up, because one day Juliana confronts him demanding to know who the hell he is and what does he want. Because he knows things he shouldn’t. Like the first time he drops Juliana off at the fashion school and surprised goes ‘Oh, you go to Rafaela’s school?’ and then tries to recover saying that it’s the best fashion school and has been in the news and that’s how he knows who runs it. So yeah, he seems to know things he shouldn’t, especially things about Valentina. Private, personal things. And he sometimes takes liberties with her, almost as if forgetting he’s just an employee...so, she repeats, who the fuck he is and what does he want?

And he tells her the truth, how he’s Leon in another body, and how his friend Camilo has studied the phenomenon and it’s called transmigration and he can explain it better, and he knows that it sounds crazy but it’s true.

Juliana has read Camilo’s book more than once with Valentina, because it brought comfort to her. And she has also met Camilo and she knows he was Leon’s best friend and he loves the Carvajal children, and that he had vouched for Jacobo when he suggested him as a driver for the family. She pretty much drags him to Camilo, and while she is giving him the benefit of the doubt, she threatens him that if he is lying he’s going to regret trying to mess with Valentina.

Camilo tells her that Jacobo is really Leon, that he knows things about him and their friendship that only Leon would know. Next step is telling Valentina, because now Juliana is relatively sure it’s true, but Valentina is the only one who can confirm it. And indeed she does after Jacobo shares a memory only her dad would know.

At some point Juliana apologizes for threatening him, but Leon waves her off, because he’s happy that Valentina has someone who cares and loves her so much and who tries to protect her. Although that doesn’t mean he isn’t curious about how they came to be...but Juliana tells him that it’s something Valentina will have to tell him. And she does, she tells him about her time in Canada, her loneliness, how she got to know Juliana, how she became her best friend, and then she tells him about Eva pushing her towards boys and how she knew that Leon wouldn’t oppose it...and it’s hard for him to hear about his shortcomings as a father, but somehow easier for Valentina to tell him because he doesn’t actually look like her dad.

Another thing they talk about is why Leon might have come back in another body and he tells them that he thinks it’s so that he can figure out who killed him.

‘My bet is on Johny,’ and when Leon protests that he’s basically family, Juliana just adds that ‘family can be sleazy assholes too,’ before muttering a ‘I would know.’ ‘But really,’ she continues, ‘he just happened to have a gun on him the day of your wedding? And the fact that he killed your killer on the spot? Honestly that’s suspicious. Like, that’s not a normal reaction. Freak out? Freeze? Beat him up to a pulp? Sure. Killing him without a second of hesitation? Ehhh,’

She then points out that being their driver is not going to be helpful and that maybe he should tell the rest of the family so that everyone can try to figure it out...and he’ll be able to have access to everything that he can’t if they believe he’s just a random dude working for them.

So they decide to tell them. Only difference from the show it’s that it’s Valentina who introduces the idea to them instead of Guille. Jacobo still shares with Eva and Guille and Lucia memories that only Leon would have.

Then one day Jacobo is meeting with Eva, Lucia and Guille to discuss the Grupo, because Johny is trying to take it in a direction that is the complete opposite of what Leon wanted and believed in...and he has enough board members on his side that they can’t really stop him. So they are asking his advice. And he reveals that there is a provision in the group’s statute that allows all members of the family to have a vote on the board. Meaning spouses too.

‘Yes, but Lucia is already in. Even if Mateo votes with us, we’re still short on numbers, and it’s not like you can vote as Jacobo Reyes...’ Guille trails off.

‘Valentina should be present for this,’ Jacobo tells them and they agree, especially since she will need to step up and take a seat on the board too.

So they wait until Valentina arrives and they explain the situation. She is at the same time furious and not surprised. ‘That rat,’ she mutters. ‘What can we do?’

‘We need enough votes on the board to shoot down Johny’s ideas, but we don’t have them,’ Guille sums up the situation.

‘I’ve put a clause in the Grupo’s statute that makes it possible for all Carvajals, for birth or marriage, to have a seat on the board, and consequently a vote,’ Leon adds.

‘Oh,’ Valentina breaths out, immediately realizing where it is going.

‘Do you think that would be possible?’ he asks.

‘I’m sure, but just let me ask,’

She takes out her phone.

‘You were right about the rat,’ it’s how she starts the call. ‘No, no, don’t worry, not in the room or the house, I’m safe. But we need your help for,’ she clears her throat. ‘Pest control,’ everyone looks at her amused and confused. ‘Oh, didn’t think about that,’ Valentina turns to the others. ‘Grab your stuff and let’s go,’

‘Where are you? On the bus?’ she keeps talking on the phone as she goes towards the front door, the others following her perplexed. ‘What would be a good-?’ she gets out and towards a car. ‘Camilo’s? Sure. Can you drive us to Camilo’s house?’ Leon just raises an eyebrow but nods.

Everyone gets in the car. ‘No, I don’t think that he knows about papa, well, yes, unless he bugged the house,’

Realization dawns on everyone else. Leon gives instructions to Eva to call someone he knew to have them check and clean the house, since he can’t do it himself. But he can call Camilo to tell him that they are going to his house.

‘Oh yeah, I was told,’ Camilo’s voice resounds in the car. ‘Just let yourself in with your keys, we’re going to try and fix the sound system,’

It doesn’t take long for them to arrive at Camilo’s house. Leon opens the door and Valentina immediately passes by him.

‘Is anyone going to explain or...?’ Eva can’t keep it in anymore.

‘Just...be calm. And keep in mind that your sister is happy,’ is all her dad says, leading them in.

They are barely into the room when they hear a loud thump and series of curses, soon covered by Valentina’s voice apologizing. Then they see Valentina hovering over a figure hunched over, face lowered between legs and covered by hands.

‘I’m okay,’ comes the muffled voice. ‘I’m okay, don’t worry,’ the hands leave the face revealing a bloody mask. ‘I’m fine,’

‘Juliana, you’re clearly not fine!’ Valentina is a mix of alarmed and exasperated.

‘Hey, calm down,’ Juliana tries to reassure her and to stand up. She stumbles but Valentina catches her.

‘Oh, hi, I’m Juliana, nice to-’ Juliana starts to extend her arm for a handshake when she notices the blood on them. ‘Maybe later,’ she trails off sheepishly. ‘I’ll go to the bathroom to clean up,’

‘You’re not going anywhere,’ Valentina guides her to the couch, Juliana uncertain on her feet. ‘Thank you,’ she nods at Camilo who returned with a basin full of water, some cloths, and a first aid kit. She starts cleaning her face, but she gets more nervous every second that the blood doesn’t stop. ‘We’re going to the hospital,’

‘We’re not,’

‘Juliana, it’s not stopping,’

‘Can I have a mirror?’ Camilo promptly takes one off the wall and holds it in front of her. She pokes at the cut, flinching slightly. ‘Don’t worry, it just bleeds a lot but it’s nothing serious. It’s the place.’

‘You need stitches,’

‘Nah, some butterfly stitches and maybe I won’t even get a scar,’ Juliana nods her thanks to Camilo, who puts back the mirror. ‘Val, don’t worry, it’s not the first time, I know the drill,’

‘You know that is not really comforting,’ Valentina huffs. ‘I’m so sorry,’

‘No need for that, I know you didn’t mean to scare me,’

Once things calm down, they get to explain the reason of the meeting.

‘I told you. I met him a couple of times but it was enough to figure him out. Sleazy asshole who wants your company and your wife,’

Everyone turns to look at Lucia, who grimaces. ‘He had made some...advances,’ she admits.

‘Told you, I know his type,’ Juliana shrugs. ‘He just dresses slightly better than all the others I met...well, better is big word...let’s say that he spends more money on his clothes, not that well-spent tho,’

‘Is it relevant in any way?’ Eva cuts her off.

‘Right, sorry, go on,’ between Eva’s personality and the tense circumstances, Juliana knows not to take it personally. Objectively not the best time to go on a fashion rant.

Leon goes on to explain the board situation ‘...any Carvajal, including those married into the family,’

‘Oh,’ Juliana has the same exact reaction of Valentina. ‘Okay, what do you need me to do? Show up to the meeting and vote however you want me to?’

‘Basically,’

‘Okay,’

‘I’m sorry, but that’s it? Also, are we going to ignore the fact that Valentina apparently got married?’ Eva bursts out.

‘Valentina what?’

‘Oh, keep up Guille!’ Eva rolls her eyes at her brother. ‘Well?’ she stares at them, waiting for answers.

‘Don’t know about the second part, but the first...yeah, that’s it,’ Juliana shrugs. ‘What did you expect?’

‘So you’re just going to do that? No question asked?’

‘What? Helping Valentina saving her family company? Of course. What questions are there? If she needs me, she knows I’ll do anything for her,’

‘That’s how I got you to marry me,’ Valentina winks at her wife.

‘Yes, let’s talk about that,’

‘Shouldn’t we first finish talking about what to do for the Grupo?’ Valentina looks grateful at Juliana’s diversion. ‘Also, shouldn’t be Mateo be here too?’

While Eva calls her husband and asks him to go to Camilo’s house, Juliana lays down on the couch.

‘What time is it?’ Juliana asks dozily, her head in Valentina’s lap.

‘Right,’ Valentina realizes why she is asking. ‘I’m calling Perlita,’

‘Val,’

‘Nope, I let you decide about the hospital, but there is no way I’ll let you go to work like this,’ Valentina’s tone leaves no room for objection, getting amused looks from Guille and Eva, who are unused to see her being the responsible, mature one.

‘Perlita? Hi, it’s Valentina. Yes, thank you. I’m calling to tell you that Juliana won’t be at the restaurant for her shift today. Yes, she hit her head and she was dizzy before, couldn’t stand up by herself, I really don’t want her to stay on her feet all night. Thank you. She was ready to come in today, so I wouldn’t count on that, but I’ll tell her. Thank you again.’

‘She said to take off tomorrow too,’ Valentina tells Juliana once she hangs up.

Juliana’s protests are interrupted by her phone ringing. ‘Lita? Hi! How are you? Yes, yes. No. We are with the family. No. You know I haven’t talked to Mom since...Valentina’s family...We just told them....Didn't really get into it, but...okay. Yes? Do you want to talk to her?’ she hands off her phone to Valentina. ‘She wants to talk to you,’

‘Lita? Everything okay? Ahh,’ Valentina laughs. ‘Yes, she hit her head,’

‘Val,’

‘And of course she claims to be fine, yes. You know how she is,’

‘Val, I don’t want her to worry,’

‘She won’t worry if you promise her that you’ll let me take care of you,’ Valentina looks at her pointedly.

‘Why does it feel like a trap?’ Juliana squints up at her, the light hurting her eyes.

‘Of course, I’ll keep you updated. We can talk later. Also about when you’re coming to visit us? Okay. Yes. We love you too. Bye,’

‘So your family knows?’ Lucia breaks the silence after a bit.

‘Just my grandma. I don’t talk to my parents,’ Juliana grimaces.

‘Sorry,’ Lucia senses the sore topic.

‘I’ve come to terms with it,’ she gives her a tight smile and a shrug...which ends up being more like a wiggle since she is still laying down.

Then Mateo arrives. He greets everyone and then stops in front of Valentina and Juliana. He leans down to kiss Valentina’s cheek, and glances at Juliana.

‘This is Juliana,’

‘Nice to meet you,’ Juliana raises her hand and Mateo shakes it with a soft perplexed smile.

‘Are you okay?’ he can see the already blossoming bruise and the little specks of blood that eluded Valentina’s care.

‘My head hurts a bit,’

‘I bet,’ Leon chuckles. ‘We heard the crash...I’m surprised the cabinet is still intact,’

‘As someone likes to remind me…hard-headed,’

They explain everything to Mateo and it’s a lot. Especially the part about Jacobo being Leon. He’s less surprised about the Johny part, and he reveals how he’s investigating someone using the Grupo Carvajal for money laundering and he suspects it’s Johny. [Eva is not involved with Alacran or any crime, just like Lucia was never involved with Johny]

‘Of course I’m going to give you my vote, for whatever you need, had I know it I could have helped before,’

‘Nobody knew about this clause,’

‘But even with my vote, it’s gonna be a tie,’

‘Oh,’ it takes just that for Mateo to recognize his wife’s tone and know she is gonna drop a bomb. ‘haven’t you met Juliana? Valentina’s wife?’

Juliana sheepishly waves him hello.

‘Not to bring the mood down, but,’ Juliana pipes up from her spot in Valentina’s lap as the others had delved into business discussions. ‘You have a plan to save the Grupo...what are you going to do about Johny potentially being the one responsible for your death?’

They start talking about that. About Inspector Montilla being in charge of the investigation without results yet. How they could possibly find any proof, since Johny killed the killer.

‘Why don’t you try to spook him?’

‘What?’

‘He doesn’t seem the most stable man...why don’t you play into that? With that? At best you’re going to drive him crazy and into a confession, at worst you’ll make him paranoid and suffering because of that,’ Juliana goes on.

‘I don’t really get it,’ Leon says that, but everyone else nods in agreement.

‘Look. Let’s say that I die-Ouch,’ Juliana yelps in pain. ‘Val, what the hell!’

‘Never ever say something like that again,’

‘Okay, let’s say that I’m away for a long period of time, let’s say three months, and Val, you get home and-’

‘Why I’m not with you?’

‘Because that’s an hypothetical situation that I’m using to explain my example,’ Juliana gives her a look. ‘Can I go on?’

‘As long as you know that t’s never going to happen,’ Valentina can’t resist adding.

‘As I was saying. Imagine I’m away. You know for sure that I’m not in the country. We just finished a video call and I was in front of...the Colosseum, so there is absolutely no way I’m anywhere else,’

‘Do you want to go to Italy? We should take a vacation there.’

‘Not the point, Val,’ Juliana sighs. ‘We can talk about it later, okay? Now, let’s go back. I’m in another continent. You arrive at home and ‘Eso es amor’ is playing. The table is set, burgers from our place in the park in the plates. On the coffee table there are some of our letters. You go to our bedroom and the clothes that you bought during our first video call are on the bed. The pendant that you gave me the first time you came to visit me is hanging from the bedpost,’

‘Okay, this is creeping me out,’

‘Exactly. This is a make-believe situation, just in our head. Now I imagine that you,’ Juliana now turns to Leon. ‘Knows Johny quite a bit. Have memories with him. Things that will remind him of you. What if these things randomly start to pop up around him? Would he think he’s haunted by Leon’s ghost?’

‘That’s positively...I knew you were serious when you told me you’d make me regret messing with Valentina, but now I’m really happy that it never came to that,’

‘Wait? When did this happen? Did you threaten my dad?’

‘Only if it ended up that he wasn’t actually your dad,’ Juliana knows that Valentina is not upset about it, but still feels the need to justify herself.

On the day of the meeting Johny sees Juliana sitting next to Guille and is very patronising. Telling Guille that he’s happy he found love in this difficult period of his life, but it’s not the appropriate place and time for a ‘take your girlfriend to work’ day. Eva shuts him up telling him that as a Carvajal Juliana has more rights to be there than he ever had.

He splutters out some stilted congratulations, saying that he didn’t know he had got married, the rest of the board echoing him.

‘He did not,’ Valentina strides into the room. ‘Hola mi amor,’ she leans down to kiss her.

Once everyone arrives the meeting starts as well as the discussions. When it comes the time to vote, it’s Eva who breaks the news that Juliana and Mateo are going to have one too. There are demands for explanations, and Eva gives them, but Johny still protests. He tries to argue that surely there is some kind of time clause too, that the marriage had to be lasting for a certain amount before the spouse has a say...because surely Leon wouldn’t want someone marrying into the family just to get a vote.

‘And what would you think it’s an appropriate time?’ Valentina challenges him, shutting him off as soon as he offers a timeline of months because they have plenty surpassed that, with their first anniversary coming up soon.

The diatribe goes on and on, until Juliana interrupts it. ‘Can we please go on? Because I don’t know about you but I have an actual job where I should be right now instead of being here trying to prevent my wife’s family company from going in a direction the family is against,’ and she then proceeds to shame them because they are supposed to be Leon’s friends and allies and know what he wanted for his company, and if they had to wait until he died to change policies and direction like they are trying to do, then they clearly are not what Leon wanted. Also, if the whole family says one thing, maybe they should consider following their desires and instructions...

And apparently shaming works because some of the board members side with the family when it’s time to vote. It doesn’t go down well with Johny. Adding this to the ‘spooking tactic’ Leon is implementing, with the help of Lucia and Eva, who are the ones who deal with him more, it doesn’t take long for Johny to snap. They record him trying to attack Jacobo after he saw him getting ‘too close’ to Lucia, ranting about how he’ll kill him just like he had Leon killed, and then he’ll finally get everything he deserves: money, power, Lucia...

_**EPILOGUE** _

‘Have you invited the Carvajals?’ Rafaela’s assistant asks, knowing that her boss is a family friend.

Rafaela goes to sees the whole family lined up. Mateo, Eva, her godson Guille, Lucia, an elderly lady, Valentina, a man whom she has seen in photos with Lucia and should be one of the drivers. However she doesn’t have the time to go and talk to them because the graduation ceremony is starting.

After the ceremony Rafaela has just finished greeting the family when she hears wolf-whistling and hooting. She turns to see the culprits...it’s Mateo, Valentina, Guille, and, surprisingly, the elderly woman who presented herself as Consuelo. Walking towards them, with an embarrassed but happy smile is Juliana, one of her best students.

‘Juliana, I didn’t know you knew them, we’re old friends too,’

‘Yeah, that’s sort of why, sorry,’ Juliana shrugs with a polite smile.

Rafaela nods understanding.

‘Oh, she is more than friends,’ Guille puts his arm around her shoulder. ‘She is family,’

‘Really? Well, you’re a lucky man, Guillermo,’

‘What? No!’ he drops his arm. ‘Why does everything always think that she is with me?’

‘Heteronormativity,’ Juliana and Valentina, who is now winding her arm around Juliana’s waist, reply at the same time.

They go to Perlita’s restaurant to celebrate. Valentina raises her glass ‘To Juliana. Who managed to hold down a job and graduate school brilliantly while dealing with the craziness that is-

‘You?’

‘How come you neither have a job nor have finished studying?’

Valentina glares at her siblings.

‘-while dealing with the craziness that is the Carvajal family.’ she resumes. ‘Asking my best friend to marry me has been the best decision of my life. I love you. To Juliana!’

‘To Juliana!’


	7. Youtube AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another AU idea that has been sitting in my drafts since forever. Please forgive the formatting/structure, especially the flashback part, but I thought it was better to post it like it was rather than let it languish in my folder forever because I couldn’t figure things out as much as I wished.  
> Posted for Day 7 - Free Day of [juliantina appreciation week](https://juliantinaappreciationweek.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr.

As an assignment for her school Juliana had to create a YouTube channel with some videos. She ended up doing some cooking videos because she couldn’t really afford to do something extravagant and in this way she could do her homework and also have something ready for herself and then her mom to eat once she came back from work. They were usual easy or quick recipes on a budget, but she found out that she actually enjoyed it.

Then her dad got arrested and executed and she and her mom fled to Mexico City because while Chino didn’t resurrect, Alacràn thought they knew where he hid the money and the USB. She had other things to think about.

Juliana and Valentina meet like in the show. Valentina is still in a critical moment because someone tried to kill her dad on his wedding day and she had to see him in a pool of blood and she is traumatized, but Lucho is even less comprehensive than on the show because Leon is still alive, and the rest of the family is dealing with the attempted murder, her dad’s recovery and the company.

Albeit slightly different than on the show, Juliana, especially, still goes through a lot of stuff. Once everything is over, Valentina tries to convince her to see someone to deal with everything that happened to her. After some discussions, including over money matters (they might be out of danger, but Juliana and Lupita still aren’t swimming in money, and Juliana won’t accept Panchito’s money because he has three children and a soon-to-be ex-wife to take care of…and she certainly doesn’t want Valentina to pay her therapy), they settle on Juliana talking to Camilo.

It’s upon his suggestion that Juliana starts the videos again. Just like before, she puts the phone in front of herself and she records herself cooking. Her easy and cheap recipes combined with the occasional traditional Mexican dish, often simplified, gain her some followers. Not that she particularly cares, because she is doing it for herself. Her videos are also not particularly polished or edited. She is cooking in the kitchen of her and her mom’s apartment, so often you can hear doors closing, people moving around, someone talking, even to Juliana if they hadn’t realized she is filming. 

***

_‘Hola chiquita, your mama was leaving and she let me in-oh, lo siento,’_

***

Or not caring.

***

_‘Uhh, this smells so good,’_

_Juliana reaches out and you can hear a soft slap and a yelp. ‘It’s not ready yet,’_

***

_‘So if you’re wondering what’s different, Val got me a new camera for my birthday,’_

_‘Everyone deserves to see you in all your splendor,’_

_Juliana looks beyond the camera, then away blushing. She clears her throat. ‘Anyway,’_

***

_‘The best thing would be doing this in two, but as you can see, you can do it by yourself too, it’s just more difficult,’_

_‘I can help,’_

_‘Someone whom you trust being in the kitchen,’_

_‘Ehi!’_

***

_‘So, I usually turn off the oven, let them rest of bit inside and now they should be ready to be taken out,’ Juliana says, her back to the camera, slightly bent over as she opens the oven._

_‘Val?! Did you eat one??’_

_A soft whine is heard._

_‘Is your mouth still full or did you burn yourself?’_

_Another whine._

_‘Just to be clear, they need to cool down before getting eaten,’ she looks pointedly beyond the camera. ‘Don’t eat them straight out of the oven,’_

***

_‘Juli, I’m going out, is Valentina coming over?’_

***

_Juliana is cooking when a girl in pajamas and hairs up in a messy bun passes behind her and opens the fridge, still in the shot._

_‘Val?’_

_‘Uuh,’_

_‘Are you not turning around because you realized that you’re in the frame or because you are eating?’ she asks after realizing that she was holding the fridge door open and looking inside it longer than normal._

_‘Uhm…both?’_

***

_‘Val, can you give me a hand?’_

_‘Ah, so now you need me?’_

_‘Can you gloat later and help me now?’_

***

_‘You’re the best,’ Valentina proclaims around the spoon in her mouth._

_‘You’d think that this is why you like me,’_

_‘Eh,’ she shrugs with a teasing smile._

_‘But again, you told me on the second time we woke up together that I’d be the one making breakfast when we’d live together,’ Juliana comments while focusing on the delicate task she is carrying out. ‘Should have suspected that you were in it for the food,’_

***

‘Ugh,’ Juliana leans her head against the desk.

‘What’s up?’ Valentina sits down next to her.

Juliana wordlessly starts the video on the computer again.

‘I either put music on, but that’s making it obvious I’m covering something, since I never do it, or I cut this part, but then a fundamental part is missing…and if I do it again it’s going to be clear it’s another take…maybe I should just scrap the whole thing and re-do it?’

‘Or maybe you can leave it in?’

‘Val,’

‘You know that people in the comment already think we are together, right?’

‘Really? I never read the comments,’

‘Of course you don’t,’ Valentina shakes her head with a smile. ‘But really, I have no problems if you want to leave it in. Just let me warn my family before posting it.’

The family knows about Juliana already.

FLASHBACK

‘Anyone wants cupcakes?’ Valentina joins the family having breakfast with a Tupperware.

‘Who made them?’ Eva looks at them suspiciously, while Guille nods warily.

‘Shut up,’ Valentina pouts, but relents ‘Juliana made them,’

‘The same Juliana who is teaching you how to dance?’ Guille’s eyes are twinkling. ‘If she manages to teach you how to cook, she is a miracle worker,’

‘Is she the one I met at the party?’ Eva asks. Valentina nods while sticking out her tongue at Guille. ‘I liked her. She seemed responsible,’

‘I think I’ve seen her once, seemed like a nice girl,’

‘Am I the only one who never met this girl?’ Leon wonders aloud. ‘Silvina, have you met her too?’

‘Who? And what are those?’ Chivis says putting down a tray.

‘Cupcakes. Juliana made them,’ Valentina offers her one.

‘Oh, nice girl,’ she nods, accepting it.

And then one day Lucho showed up drunk, not accepting the break-up and had a yelling match with Valentina. And just her luck, everyone was there and came to see what was happening. Asking what was going. And Lucho told them that they should ask Valentina, that they should ask what _porquerías_ she does with her ‘friend’ Juliana. Guille, the only one Valentina talked about Juliana with, is quick to drag him away, but the damage is done. Eva, in particular, is demanding explanations. And Valentina gives them, watery eyes and trembling voice, but committed to the truth. And Leon is suddenly glad that he had seen the girls kissing on the camera feed and had the time to freak out with Camilo and came to an understanding of the situation, because he never wants to see his daughter so scared of telling him something.

‘But you always had boyfriends,’ he feels like he has to put up a perfunctory protest or it would be too strange.

‘I had two and put together they didn’t make a whole one,’ she repeats what she had told Juliana.

‘So you like girls now?’

‘I like one girl. I like Juliana. I’m in love with Juliana,’

Eva turns from her sister to her brother, arms crossed. ‘You already knew, didn’t you?’

‘Didn’t you see the stupid face she has every time she talks about Juliana? Or even worse, when she is with her?’

‘Now I really need to meet her,’ Leon tells Valentina. ‘It can’t be that your own dad is the only one who has never met your girlfriend,’

Valentina is reluctant and she tells him so. It’s not him. It’s the meeting the family ‘officially’ part, she explains, Juliana didn’t have much luck in terms of family and…they are a lot.

‘What do you mean a lot?’ Eva asks affronted.

‘You know exactly what I mean,’

‘At least tell us more about her,’

‘Besides that she is _muy guapa_ and talented and she can dance and cook,’ Guille teases her.

‘Well, she IS _muy guapa_. And talented. She wants to be a fashion designer and she is very good at it. Do you remember the top I wore at your party? She made that. And she cooks very well. She does it for her YouTube channel too,’

‘Is there anything she can’t do?’

‘Swimming. But I’m teaching her,’

‘YouTube, you said?’

They end up watching some of her videos. Starting with the earliest ones. Including one who gets interrupted by shouts and the telephone falling from its place, and then starts again with Juliana wearing a long-sleeved shirt in place of the previous t-shirt, eyes red.

‘Who was…’ Lucia breaks the silence.

‘Her dad. But he’s dead,’ Valentina’s cold tone raises some eyebrows. ‘He was a criminal. Got arrested for killing a judge. Stole money from the cartel. That’s why Juliana and her mom came her, trying to escape from those guys,’ she explains, matter-of-factly.

‘Is that your friend who was kidnapped?’ Mateo, who had joined them, asks.

‘Kidnapped???’

‘Yes, but don’t worry. Everything is fine now. Alacrán is dead, and-’

‘Are you telling me that your girlfriend was somehow involved in taking down the cartel de la Sierra??’

—

Lucho comes back but is intercepted by Guille.

‘Valentina is not here, but regardless, I don’t think you should talk to her,’

‘I just want to apologize,’

‘That’s good, and I’ll pass on the message, but I think you should stay away for a while,’

‘I’m just trying to protect her, I don’t want anyone to take advantage of her, she was in a delicate moment, easily influenced and,’

‘Look, my sister is a big girl, she can take care of herself. And trust me, we all know perfectly well how to spot someone who is using us, and honestly, I think Juliana is the last person who would do that,’ Guille interrupts him. ‘Lucho, I understand that you’re hurting. A break-up is always painful, especially when it’s not mutual. But that doesn’t give you the right to talk to Valentina like that, treat her like…or to be an homophobic jerk,’

‘I’m not homophobic,’ he protests. ‘but she wasn’t honest, and-’

‘But the _porquerías_ she does with Juliana wouldn’t be as disgusting if it had been a guy?’

‘So you know? She told you??’

‘Yes. And just to be clear. The family supports her. And Juliana. So if you’re looking to make a scandal, it’s not going to work,’ Guille gives him a knowing stare. ‘And word of advice? You don’t want to be known as the guy who outed his ex in revenge…it’s a bad look,’

END FLASHBACK

After a while Juliana met everyone officially as the girlfriend. So Valentina telling her family is mostly about preparing them that they might be asked about her coming out. She shows them the video in advance and as usual she gets teased for it, but nothing more.

And then nothing happens. Juliana has just some thousands followers, mostly Americans, and clearly none who knows who Valentina is. That’s not to say that she doesn’t gain more followers…not that she notices anyway.

***

_‘This is probably weird, but I lost a bet and now I have to ask…would you be interested in a Q &A video? Comment below with a yes or no, and with any question….if you have them,’ she adds. ‘I don’t think I’m that interesting, but…’ she shrugs._

***

_‘Okay, as you can see this is not the kitchen,’ Juliana is sitting on a couch._

_‘Say it!’_

_Juliana rolls her eyes. ‘Valentina was right,’_

_‘As usual!’_

_Juliana opens her mouth to reply but then thinks better about it. ‘Anyway, apparently you have questions so…she collected them and she is gonna ask them. Val, come here,’_

_Valentina jumps on the couch. ‘Hola everyone! Thank you for proving my point to Juls,’_

_‘Let’s start,’_

_‘Right! First question…what was the bet?’_

_Juliana pursues her lips and looks away._

_‘We were out and someone sent us some drinks,’ Valentina takes over. ‘I told her they were for her, but she didn’t believe me, so we made a bet…which I won when they come over and flirted with her…right in front of my salad,’_

_Juliana just shakes her head._

_‘Why was the penitence a Q &A?’_

_‘Well, as you probably can tell this was not my idea. Val had been telling me that you guys were curious about me…and us, but I didn’t see the point because, really, I’m not that interesting,’_

_‘Yes, you are,’ Valentina butts in. ‘She doesn’t like to talk about herself, if you couldn’t tell,’_

_‘Go on,’_

_‘How did you meet?’_

_Juliana looks at Valentina, she doesn’t want to share things not hers to share._

_‘We met in the park. I was crying on a bench and she asked me if I was alright. I told her I was fine and to get lost,’ Valentina laughs. ‘Then I called her back. She complimented my clothes. Then tried to rob me,’_

_‘It was a joke!!’_

_‘I started crying again. Then laughing. Then she hugged me. I told her my name, we went for a stroll, I bought her a burger and the rest is history,’_

_…_

_‘Many asked when or why you started to cook,’_

_‘Well, my mom was working very long hours so I learned how to cook for myself…and so that she didn’t have to once she got home_

_‘Does Valentina ever cook for you?’_

_Juliana laughs. ‘Are you kidding right?’_

_‘Not even going to ask the next one,’ Valentina pouts._

_Juliana wrestles the phone from her._

_‘What’s Valentina’s signature dish?’ Juliana reads still laughing. ‘Pan quemado!’_

_[subtitles appear : burnt toast ]_

_‘Does Valentina understand everything you say in your videos since you talk in English?’_

_‘Yes, she does,’ Valentina nods at that. ‘She is posh and studied in Canada,’_

_‘I’m not liking this,’ she sends her a mock glare._

_‘You’re the one who wanted to do it,’_

_‘I was expecting more gushing and less mocking,’ she jokes. ‘Next question. Oh.’ She furrows her brows. ‘ Is this why you said we could be friends but nothing more? Can’t really compare, can I? LOL you make a great couple! I’m going to NY, come visit me,’ Valentina shows her the phone a bit confused._

_‘Oh, Nick! Hi, Nick!’ Juliana smiles genuinely happy. ‘He was my classmate in San Antonio,’_

_‘And he asked you out?’_

_‘Are you jealous?’_

_Valentina sticks out her tongue._

_‘He did. I turned him down and he took it like a champ. We stayed friends after that. Thanks for the invite,’_

_‘Are you coming back to the Texas? Or the US?’_

_Juliana glances at the screen and smiles again. Another one of her ex-classmates. Apparently they never stopped following her channel…probably they had even forgotten about it since she had stopped posting for a while. ‘Not particularly,’ she looks at Valentina. ‘Everything I need and want is here,’_

_Valentina darts forward to give her a kiss._

***

_‘Hello! As you can see this is not my kitchen. Today I’m going to try something a bit more complicated and Val offered her kitchen…well, not that she ever actually uses it,’_

_‘Even in my own house!’_

_—-_

_‘You should always do your videos here,’_

_‘I don’t think Silvina would be happy with me taking over her kitchen,’_

_‘Chivis is happy if I’m happy…’_

***

_‘I’m back here because today I’m cooking with someone, the dueña_ _of this kitchen, Silvina,’ Chivis waves awkwardly, ‘which is why we’re going to talk in Spanish and I will then add subtitles. Silvina very gently agreed to teach me how to make coq-au-vin, which is one of Val’s favourite dishes. Now if you don’t know what coq-au-vin is…welcome to the club. When I tried it for the first time I told Val that it was good but I couldn’t taste the coconut,’ she gives a self-deprecating laughter. ‘I remember your face when Val suggested that next time you should add it,’_

_Chivis shakes her head good-naturally, ‘mi ni_ ñ _a,’_

***

Juliana mostly makes her videos at home, but she occasionally makes use of the Carvajals’ kitchen.

***

_‘Chivis, what is this heavenly smell? Oh Juliana, sorry, I didn’t realize,’_

_‘Lucia! Don’t go,’ Juliana calls after her. ‘Really, just do what – wait, do you mind being in the video? I can stop and cut it out,’_

_‘No,’ the blonde waves her concerns away._

_‘Then please, get in and do what you were going to. This is your house, I kinda of took over, so…’_

_‘What are you making?’ Lucia acquiesces and goes to fridge, while telling Juliana how the smell reminds of a favourite childhood food. Not because it’s the same, but for some kind of mental association._

***

_‘Hello! I’m thinking about maybe putting a title to it and make it a series, just in case, but for now…I’m Juliana, and today I will be cooking with Lucia,’ the angle changes and now both of them are in the frame. Lucia had gifted her another camera, saying that it was a thank-you for all her work trying to figure out how to make one of her favourite dishes. Juliana is quite sure it was on Valentina’s suggestion, since her girlfriend had been insisting that she needed more coverage since the kitchen was bigger. ‘Lucia is my…’_

_‘Mother-in-law,’_

_Juliana chokes on air._

_‘Step-mother-in-law…does it even exist? And anyway, I don’t like how it sounds,’ Lucia muses aloud, ignoring Juliana’s gaping at her with a soft smirk._

_Juliana clears her throat. ‘Anyway, today we’re gonna make…’_

***

Once Lucia’s video is posted, it comes up during a family meal. Needless to say that it doesn’t take long before Eva is talking with Juliana about appearing in one too. She might have accepted the marriage, but that doesn’t mean that she likes Lucia now…or that she will accept coming in any way short compared to her. And Juliana might have faced narcos, but her girlfriend’s sister is intimidating and she doesn’t want to get on her wrong side, especially not without a good reason.

***

_‘So, yes, this is now a series. I’m Juliana and this is,’_

_‘Eva, the sister-in-law,’ Eva interrupts her. ‘No step anywhere,’_

_‘Before starting let me say that Eva, just like Lucia, is taken and happily married, so please behave in the comments,’_

_Juliana still doesn’t read the comments, but from how Valentina reacted reading through the ones on Lucia’s video, she doesn’t even want to know._

_‘Yes, please, I’m the one who is going to read them, and that’s my sister,’ Valentina’s voice is heard from outside the frame._

_‘Why are you here, anyway? Shouldn’t you go to university?’ Eva crosses her arms, eyebrow raised._

_Juliana tries to look busy, suspecting why Valentina is there but not wanting to say._

_‘You know that I have been alone with Juliana before, right?’_

_‘What?! When?!’_

_‘Just go,’_

_‘But,’_

_‘You know your presence is not going to stop me from embarrassing you, right?’_

_‘Why are you all so mean to me?’ Valentina whines. ‘Also I had questions ready,’_

_‘Which type of questions?’ Juliana, who was busying herself hoping not to get involved in the sisters’ bickering, asks._

_‘Like what was your first impression of the other,’_

_‘You already know that…you showed me a photo and I told you that she was muy guapa,’_

_‘I knew I liked you for a reason,’ Eva jokes. 'Besides the fact that the first time I saw you, you were taking care of her drunken mess,’ she nods towards Valentina ‘willingly and completely sober,’_

***

Juliana’s channel ends up having three main ‘series’: the easy, quick and cheap recipes, the traditional ones, and the ‘cooking with…’ series. In which one by one everyone ends up starring in. Guille cooking something for Renata. Lupita preparing a dish that she used to make that little!Juliana loved. Leon recreating with Juliana’s help one of his first wife’s favourite dishes that the family hadn’t had since her death. Panchito sharing what dishes are always a hit with his children. Chivis and her apple pie, for Alirio’s joy. Even Mateo guest-stars.

And yes. Eventually even Valentina. 

***

_'Before you ask…yes, Valentina is next to me wearing an apron because she is joining me today,’_

_Valentina does a little hop._

_'She is going to be my helper and maybe, with time, if she proves herself, I might even let her try her hand at cooking something simple,’_

_Valentina huffs._

_'We could start a new series…like, cooking for dummies,’ she laughs._

_'Why did you say yes if you’re going to make fun of me the whole time?’ she pouts._

_'Because there are only so many times I can say no to this face,’ she gestures to Valentina, who after a beat obliges and shows off her puppy-eyes expression. ‘Honestly, it’s a miracle I managed to hold on for so long.’_

***

Everything is just so…normal and quiet that they honestly forget that they thought that Valentina coming out might be 'a thing’. Lucho has taken Guille’s advice. Sergio either doesn’t exist/doesn’t know/isn’t an asshole. They just live their lives. People are used to see Valentina with her 'friend’ Juliana. They study. Juliana tries to update a video every couple of weeks.

That’s until…

At first it’s restricted to online queer community. 

There are memes. Threads and compilations with their ‘best’ moments. The ‘funniest’ ones. The ‘family embarrassing them’ ones. 

The videos with the Carvajal family members are particularly popular. But of course the Carvajal name can only get mentioned so many times before bigger outlets pick it up. And it explodes. Juliana’s followers count goes from thousands to millions overnight. Not that she notices. She and Valentina have decided to take a break and go away for some days, just the two of them, away from family and work, to recharge a bit. It’s only when she goes online to post a video she had prepared in advance (she always has a backup of 3 or 4 videos in cases she gets too busy) that she realizes something must have happened.

‘Uhm…Val? I think you should see this,’


End file.
